A Rider's Odyssey
by Hamsterjellyman
Summary: It was just supposed to be another day for both Toothless and his rider. Unfortunately, crossing paths with a powerful witch has dire consequences for them. Stuck on an island with no means of escape, what will Hiccup and Toothless do to prevent themselves from becoming simple playthings for a sorceress known only from myths and legends?
1. Chapter 1

** Author's Notes: So I was in college, thinking "What's an original, but also interesting story I can write for the HTTYD fandom?"**

**Then I remembered a book known as The Odyssey, a story I've only read once but never really thought about.**

**Seeing as how I haven't come across any stories of this premise, I thought maybe I could pull off a fanfic related to an event from the Odyssey. And so this story was born.**

**This doesn't mean I've given up my other story, but this story idea was too good to pass up.**

**Reviews are welcome and appreciated.**

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Chapter 1: The Island

"Hold on, Toothless! Let's land on that island!"

The Night Fury gave a grunt of confirmation. His rider was breathing hard in this sweltering heat and even he was tired after spending their whole morning flying non-stop.

It had just been another day for the flying duo. They got up earlier than everyone else, secretly crept out of the house without waking his dad (which was hard considering that Toothless's body constantly kept knocking over various objects, which made Hiccup groan as he would have to explain why his dad's flower vase was currently shattered on the floor.) and took to the sky.

It was one of those beautiful and rare summer days.

Ironically, this was unfortunate for the health of anyone who chose to ride their dragon, unless they wanted sunburn. Not that it bothered the dragons, who had their own internal heat. But their riders would have that risk of suffering severe sunburn or even heatstroke. And considering that Hiccup was needed to keep both of them steady at one thousand feet, these circumstances made it really dangerous for both him and Toothless.

What made it worse was that they had flown farther than they ever had from the island of Berk. This wasn't usually a problem, as Hiccup always followed the wind, sun, and even the stars when it became dark, but his exhaustion was becoming readily apparent on his sweat-matted face. Toothless groaned in concern as his rider's breathing became increasingly erratic.

Luckily for both of them, an island covered with lush-green trees and surrounded by clear-water beaches had come into Hiccup's sights. It seemed like a comfortable place to rest before continuing back to Berk.

"We're almost there Toothless." His rider said in a raspy voice that was clearly dehydrated. "We're almost-"

Toothless felt his tailfin go slack and Hiccup's body collapse against on his back, indicating that the heat had gotten to his human.

Retaining his panic and having no support for his flight, all the Night Fury could do was glide and hope that he could travel the rest of the distance to the island.

Unbeknownst to both the dragon and human, a figure in the shadows of the trees had seen their approach. It watched their descent and heard the loud screech the Night Fury gave as the dragon landed in the ocean a few hundred feet away.

"I see that we have another male to add to my pet collection." said the figure gleefully, a smile forming on her red, luscious lips.

She watched as the dragon struggled to keep himself and the brown-haired male afloat, clearly concerned for the boy's well-being. He must've been another one of those air-headed Vikings. It was surprising that they were allies with dragons now. Someone must have gotten rid of that dumb queen dragon after all those years. The woman chuckled. Good riddance.

She brushed back her black, ponytailed hair, before turning and strolling smoothly into the deeper parts of the jungle, her beautiful white dress untouched by the grass, dirt, and mud. She strolled smoothly down her path, wildlife ranging from birds to bears bowing graciously and clearing a path for her.

"I will have to do something about that dragon, though." She muttered darkly. The overgrown reptile would be the most difficult obstacle to get around. This was good though. She loved a hard, but entertaining challenge.

As for the boy; it was disappointing really. He would be no problem.

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Hiccup awoke to the sudden cold dousing of water in his face. Disoriented, all he could do was groan as his vision cleared and his ears rang from the loud screeching of Toothless.

Wait. Weren't he and Toothless flying? The last thing he remembered was seeing the island before...

All of a sudden, his body was thrown off Toothless as a large wave of water crashed onto him and his black-scaled reptilian friend. Hiccup struggled to keep afloat, but the ocean was too wild to control where his body was going. It didn't help that his disorientation and shock from the situation was still going through his head. His nose, mouth, and lungs burned as air left his system.

Not only that, but his leg, being made of metal, was too heavy to bring him back up to the surface. He could barely make out the black blob underwater that he knew was Toothless. His vision began to darken and his struggling slowed down until it was practically nonexistent.

Just before he completely blacked out, he felt powerful jaws clamp on the back of his shirt, feeling the water rushing by his face as he sped upwards toward the surface.

He gasped desperately for air as his body broke the ocean's surface. He barely had time to relax as his body was thrown onto the Night Fury's back. Shaking his head and ignoring the burning pain in his chest, he wrapped his arms tightly around the neck of the Night Fury and hung on.

Toothless warbled and whined, concerned for his rider.

"I'm *cough* fine *cough* bud." Hiccup said. He took a deep breath of the fresh summer air before continuing. "Just head towards that beach." He motioned weakly with his arms towards the land in front of them, before falling back against the Fury's scales.

Toothless groaned. His muscles were burning, and considering how far the island was, it would take hours to make it there. Hiccup was too exhausted to fly him and he was ready to faint.

Suddenly, the Night Fury felt a slippery but solid surface rub underneath his forelegs. Looking down as he swam, he saw the most peculiar thing...

Whales.

There were at least three whales by the looks of it, and they circled the Night Fury. At first, Toothless thought they would just leave, considering the relationships between dragons and fish, but then he felt one of the whales rising underneath him, lifting him out of the water.

The next thing he knew, the whale began to carry him towards the island, while the other two followed side-by-side. While Toothless was grateful for the whales' help, it also baffled him. Why was this fish helping him? When would prey ever help their own predator? It didn't make any sense.

Several minutes passed by, followed only by the sounds of water splashing against the whales as they carried the dragon, which in turn, carried the sleeping human. Toothless wished Hiccup was awake. That way, he wouldn't be the only one experiencing this weird phenomenon.

The whales stopped just short of reaching the actual island, but now that the Night Fury was well-rested, he felt that he could swim the rest of the way there.

Warbling thanks to the whales, he leapt of the back of the whales into the water. Hiccup, however, remained unconscious.

The whales watched as the dragon doggie-paddled onto the beach. It then crawled wearily onto the sand and collapsed, tired from the effort.

While the whales were inwardly grateful to help the dragon and the boy, they also knew that if both of them didn't leave HER island soon...

Well, at least the dragon could get out of this. But the boy? The most the whales could do was wish him luck. And hope that he wouldn't end up like the rest of the men there. Especially like a certain group of triplets.


	2. Chapter 2

**Author's Note: Thanks to everyone who favorited, followed, and reviewed. I have several chapters planned for this story, but I'm still finalizing them. If something is off, plotwise, grammar-wise or anything at all, please tell me.**

**Reviews are welcome and appreciated.**

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Chapter 2: The Wolf

Something wet and slimy ran its way up Hiccup's face. The boy groaned. He was completely burned out from what had happened earlier. At first, he considered just resting more for little while, but then his eyes shot open as he remembered WHAT had happened earlier.

"TOOTHLESS!" The boy exclaimed. He winced from the brightness of the sun and squinted a little before his eyes finally adjusted. It was most likely noon, so he guessed he'd been asleep for several hours.

He looked all around desperately before realizing that the dragon was lying unconscious on the sand. Pushing himself to his knees, Hiccup crawled to the dragon, placing his hand on the Fury's head.

"Oh, Toothless..." Hiccup said sadly. "I'm sorry. I should have paid more attention to the weather today." Hiccup scratched the dragon's chin, making Toothless purr in his sleep. The Night Fury was clearly exhausted from saving Hiccup earlier.

Feeling immensely guilty, Hiccup lowered himself down to the Night Fury's chest and placed his head against it. "Thank you for saving me. Odin knows how useless I am when it comes to my leg and the ocean." He chuckled at his own sarcastic quip, but the humor was instantly dispelled at the groan the dragon gave. Silence followed, interrupted only by the sound of the ocean waves crashing down on the beach.

Thinking of some way to help his friend, Hiccup stood up on his prosthetic, which was rusty from being in the salt water. He stumbled around slightly on the sand before balancing.

"I know. I'll be right back. I'll go find some of that grass that you-"

Hiccup had turned around to do his errand, but realized that he was not alone. Sitting in front of him was a grey, gruff, heavily panting wolf. The boy stiffened and his breath caught in his throat. On instinct, he reached for the knife in his belt, which was the only weapon Toothless felt comfortable about him having.

However, the wolf did not growl, snarl, or even attack. In fact, it did something he did not expect:

It whimpered.

It lowered its body towards the ground and backed away, its eyes stuck on the blade in Hiccup's vest.

The boy's eyebrows creased in confusion. This wolf knew the dangers of a knife? Most wild animals would simply attack when provoked, no matter how domesticated. Even Berk's dragons fell into this criterion.

The wolf continued to whimper, looking more scared of the human that it could have taken down in an instant. After all, Hiccup had never actually used his knife for anything other than household use. He wasn't even sure that he would be able to hold his own against would the canine, with or without the knife. He could probably wound it, but it would most likely tear out his throat faster than he could react.

"Wait a minute..." Hiccup said out loud. His eyes widened as he remembered the wet licking that had awoken him earlier. If Toothless was unconscious this whole time, then this wolf was obviously the one who had licked him. It could have killed him at any time if it wanted to. So why didn't it?

Hiccup let go of the knife, and the wolf's downtrodden expression immediately became one of confusion and interest. The Viking lowered himself down on his knees, and then reached his arm out, making ticking noises with his mouth.

Hiccup knew this was risky. It was along the lines of stupid. But hey, he had passed the level of stupid a long time ago.

"Come on, little guy, I won't hurt you." He said soothingly as he extended his hand and stood perfectly still.

The wolf stared at Hiccup, its tail wagging slightly. All of a sudden, the canine's head unexpectedly perked up and it looked intently at the trees. Hiccup followed its gaze into the jungle, but after several minutes of observing, he couldn't see anything. Looking back at the wolf, he nearly jumped in shock as the canine was now inches away from his hand.

Hiccup made no sudden movements, afraid that if he did anything to provoke the wolf, he would need a hook like Gobber's for the rest of his life.

The wolf opened its mouth, revealing its sharp canines. Hiccup barely had time to react before it closed its muzzle down on the boy's hand. The boy's face paled at this, his heart beating erratically. He had to hold back a yelp at the action, but the pain he was expecting did not come. His heart rate slowly relaxed as the wolf did nothing but lick his hand. The wolf held on for a few more seconds before letting go. Hiccup examined his hand briefly, finding white depressions where the wolf had bit down, but otherwise no blood. The marks were already disappearing anyways.

Turning his head back to look at the wolf, the animal was now sitting on its rump, panting and swishing its furry tail across the sand. It leapt on all fours suddenly and, to the Viking's amusement, pranced around the beach, barking excitedly, before running back to Hiccup. It continued to shorten the distance between itself and the boy until...

Hiccup froze. The wolf was now directly in front of him, staring up at him with hazel eyes that were surprisingly human-like. It then nuzzled him, rubbing its furry head against the boy's chest in an affectionate way. Hiccup, seeing that the wolf was clearly safe to interact with, brought his hands down to rub the wolf's head. After a few moments of petting, both the wolf and the human silently gazed at one another, with Hiccup holding the wolf's soft, furry ears in each of his hands. The canine licked his face in the meantime.

A loud groan from Toothless snapped Hiccup out of his reverie with the wolf. Letting go of the wolf's head, he turned back to his friend. "Ugh! I'm an idiot!" The boy muttered. "Where was I?" Momentarily forgetting the wolf for a moment, Hiccup squint his eyes shut in thought, trying to remember what he was doing before the wolf had appeared. His mind felt like it had been through a fog.

The wolf meanwhile, confused and upset at the sudden inattention, simply sat down again, watching the human with its head tilted. It had enjoyed the scratching. After all, the mistress never really interacted with any of the animals on the island.

The wolf whined. It really wanted to spend more time with the boy, but it knew better than to endanger the life of the human boy. The animals, on the rare occasions when they were left alone, had promised among themselves long ago to protect any human from the mistress's power, Even if it meant the greatest punishment from the mistress.

Hiccup, hearing the whimper, turned back to the wolf, which looked absolutely downcast. Feeling bad for his sudden neglect of the wolf, Hiccup reached out his left hand to the wolf's head, while keeping his right on the dragon.

The wolf gasped at the unexpected contact, then melted into the scratching given under his neck. How could something feel so good?

"Don't be sad. I'm just worried that my friend is hurt. I didn't mean to ignore you." Hiccup explained. He continued rubbing the wolf's head, while also turning his attention back to the dragon, which was sleeping contentedly with a smile on his face.

The wolf whined sadly. How could it explain to the boy the dangers on this island? It wanted to tell him that it used to be like him, but this cursed form didn't come with the ability to speak Viking.

The wolf suddenly realized that it was being selfish. It was deliberately putting this boy in danger. And for what? A few scratches and a rub behind the ears? It did feel good though...

No! It had to do what was necessary. It hated itself for what it came down here for originally, but the boy needed SOME incentive to leave. And encouraging the belief that the island was full of deadly, feral beasts was a surefire way of accomplishing that, no matter how degrading it was. They'd all given up hope a long time ago that someone could help them. The least they could do was prevent this from happening to anyone else.

Its eyes hardening, the wolf tore itself away from the comfort of the boy's hand. Hiccup, who had paid attention to Toothless at that particular moment, turned back to the wolf to see what the problem was.

He did not expected to see the wolf splaying itself on all fours; tail raised, teeth bared, and a growling tone that sounded as though it belonged to the hounds of Hel, the wolf no longer had the carefree innocent atmosphere it had a few moments ago. It looked as though it wanted to positively MURDER him.

"What's wrong?" asked Hiccup, turning his body on his knees to fully address the wolf. He looked down at his knife.

"Is this bothering you?" Hiccup suggested. Without looking for an answer on the wolf's face, he took out his knife from the inner lining of his vest and threw it several feet away in the sand. The wolf stopped growling, looking towards the knife without changing its aggressive stance. Hiccup could swear that the look on its face was one of genuine surprise.

The wolf couldn't believe it. Was this boy suicidal? Was he crazy? What human would disarm himself of his only weapon when confronted with a dangerous animal? The wolf shook its head in disbelief, knowing that unless it did something drastic, the boy would not take the danger seriously.

Suspecting that maybe he had solved the problem, Hiccup reached out his arm to pet the wolf's soft white fur again...

"OW!"

Only to clutch his arm into his chest after the wolf snapped its jaws on his hand. Hard.

Looking at his hand, Hiccup examined the bite wound. Fortunately, while his hand was now in pain, the canine had miraculously not drawn any blood. However, bruises were already beginning to form.

The bite got the message got through to Hiccup though. He backed away from the wolf immediately, and pushed himself against the Night Fury's chest. The terror was clear on his face, but inwardly, he was confused. Why had the wolf attacked him? As far as he knew, he had done nothing to provoke the wolf at all. The canine had been doing fine right up until a moment ago.

The wolf meanwhile, had become silent, horrified of what it'd done to the boy. What had it been thinking? It didn't mean to actually hurt the boy. It only meant to snap at the boy's hand to stop him from petting it.

Without thinking, the wolf started to trot forward to see whether it had severely injured him, but stopped after seeing the boy swiftly scramble up on the dragon's ba-

Was that a saddle?

The wolf barely had time to process this new development before a loud hiss sounded. And as wolves did not hiss, that only meant one thing...

The dragon was awake.


	3. Chapter 3

**Author's Notes: I'm sorry for the long wait, but college is such a time-consumer. This chapter is relatively shorter than the others, but I assure you that all chapters will at least over a thousand words.**

**Thank you to those that followed and favorited. Reviews are welcome and appreciated.**

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Chapter 3: Goodbye...NOT!

Toothless's eyes had fluttered open when he heard a loud "OW!" resound near his ears. As he awakened from his dreams of fresh cod, the first thing he noticed was that Hiccup was awake and pushing up against his chest.

At first, Toothless thought Hiccup was giving him an overly-sentimental hug, which he himself never really minded. It was cute of his rider and felt very nice.

The nice feelings disappeared the minute the smell of dog entered his nose. Without moving his body he secretly gazed down to where the smell was emanating from, and he saw a grey-furred wolf that, for whatever reason, looked guilty. While the Night Fury was not the best expert on other animals' emotions, it knew enough to know what the wolf was feeling according to its body language.

The ears were down, its tail was lowered, but surprisingly, the hazel eyes were what gave it away and told a lot. They were currently wide with what looked like shock and then creased together in regret.

A sudden intake of breath caught the dragon's attention, and, while remaining silent, Toothless eyes fell down to Hiccup, who was currently holding and examining his hand.

The Fury's eyes widened. His human's left hand looked injured and his rider was currently rubbing it to ease the pain he was in. The Fury couldn't smell any blood, but he guessed the hand would probably have some bruises.

The wolf's sudden movement caught his attention, and at the same time he felt his rider scramble his way up to his back.

Realizing that the wolf was the only one here that could have caused his rider injury, he instantly picked himself up onto all fours (being careful not to throw off his rider, who gasped and hung on tightly at the movement) and snarled right at the wolf's face.

The wolf stopped dead. It knew that the dragon was faster than itself, and it would have been foolish to try and pick a fight with it.

A fight between a full-grown dragon and an inexperienced wolf.

It would not be a contest.

Instead, the wolf did the only thing it could do: lower itself to the ground, whine pathetically, and hope to Odin that the dragon would spare it.

Toothless meanwhile, growled approvingly, glad that this thing was smart enough to know its place.

"Toothless!" Hiccup exclaimed, having barely gotten over the surprise of the dragon's sudden awakening. "You scared me! Are you okay?" He asked concernedly. Toothless warbled an affirmative, and then gave a questioning rumble to Hiccup.

"Don't worry, Toothless. I'm alright. My hand hurts, but other than that, I should be fine." Hiccup said reassuringly.

Toothless looked at the hand that was currently rubbing his frill. The hand had a bright red bruise, and the teeth marks that ran across it confirmed his suspicions about the wolf. He growled dangerously at the canine, which was now lowering itself down into the sand even more, looking as though it just wanted to bury itself and vanish from sight.

"No Toothless! Stop! You're scaring it! Bad dragon!" shouted Hiccup. Toothless winced from the sharp tug on his ears. Why was his human concerned for the thing? It damn near bit his hand off!

Hiccup, sensing the Fury's confused thoughts on the matter, explained quickly about what had occurred before the dragon woke up. He told of his waking up, only to meet the wolf that seemed friendly a few moments ago. How the animal acted domesticated until it abruptly attacked him and how he had attempted to disarm himself of his knife in an attempt to calm the wolf down. (This revelation earned him a smack on the face from the Night Fury's ear. The wolf let out what sounded like barking laughter at the scene… at least, until Toothless growled at it again.)

"Anyways..." said Hiccup, "Let's just get home. My dad is probably worried about me and wondering where you are, especially since you broke his special flower vase this morning." Hiccup pointed out with half-lidded eyes. The dragon rumbled in laughter. The wolf, meanwhile, felt the guilt inside it relax a little, feeling that the boy had maybe forgiven the attack. It wasn't sure about the dragon though, but the boy had vouched for it. The wolf wished it could apologize and explain its reasons for the perceived attack, but it would be better anyways for the boy to think of it as an animal who couldn't make up its mind on whether humans were friend or foe.

As both the boy and 'Toothless' (wasn't that a weird name for a dragon with obviously sharp teeth) turned to set off for wherever they came from, the boy paused, then turned and waved his hand in an awkward goodbye towards the wolf.

To Hiccup's surprise, the wolf raised its foreleg and waved its arm paw back and forth. It was clumsy, but it got the message of goodbye through to the boy.

Hiccup was confused. Was the canine saying goodbye to him? Who had taught that to the wolf? He guessed he would never really know, especially since he would probably never see it again. Shaking his head, the boy strapped himself to the saddle.

And with one strong thrust of the Night Fury's wings, both dragon and rider took off.

The wolf watched for a moment before shaking its white fur of the sand, then turned and began trotting jubilantly towards the jungle, happy that the boy was finally safe from the mistress. Still, it wished that it could have spent more time with him and gotten to know his-

"SCREEEEEEEEEEEEEECH!"

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHH!"

*Splash!*

The wolf whirled around at the sudden noise. Then its jaw dropped in horror as it saw both the dragon and rider struggling to get out of the water. Luckily, they had landed only a few yards away in the shallow part of the ocean, so they would make it onto dry land in no time.

The wolf didn't understand. What happened? Did the mistress do something to the island to prevent them from leaving? Did the dragon forget how to fly? What was the problem?

It noticed that the boy seemed to be having trouble keeping afloat. He flailed his arms around, keeping himself barely above water. Toothless meanwhile, was attempting to keep himself upright after hitting the water with a nosedive. He had landed further away in the water than Hiccup, and was slightly dazed from the unexpected loss of flight he had experienced in mid-air.

The wolf, seeing as how it would take a while for the dragon to reach his rider, ran down the beach to help. Jumping into the ocean with a loud splash, the canine proceeded to quickly doggie paddle towards the boy.


	4. Chapter 4

**Author's Note: So yeah, a relatively short chapter for this story. Soory for the wait, but I do have good news.**

**I have decided to update at least every Friday. I find this story much easier to write than my first two stories, but the bad news is that New Life Ahead may take awhile for me to finish. I apologize to any who are waiting for the next chapter to that story.**

**Thanks to those who followed, favorited and reviewed! They are all welcome and appreciated.**

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Chapter 4: Unfortunate Damage

Hiccup sputtered. Water was getting into his mouth, and the salt was stinging his eyes. That damn prosthetic of his was weighing him down and making it very hard to swim properly. Luckily, the beach was just shallow enough for him to tough the bottom with his one good foot. Balancing though, was a whole other problem altogether.

His right foot was tired, burning, and personally, he was sick of water at the moment. When he got out of this...

If he got out of this, he would make sure to avoid the lakes, beaches, and all large bodies of water in general for a LONG time.

Before he could do anything else, he felt a sharp tug on the collar of his shirt that began to drag him towards the shore. He turned around, expecting Toothless to be the one pulling him. His eyes widened when he saw the wolf staring back at him with its own hazel ones.

Both he and the wolf regarded each other in curiosity for a moment before a large black form cut in between them. Toothless growled dangerously at the wolf while Hiccup scrambled up his back, coughing and retching from the taste of the disgusting sea water. The wolf meanwhile, whimpered fearfully in the large looming shadow of the dragon. It stared, terrified as the dragon opened its mouth, retracted the teeth, and a light green gas began to form in the back of the dragon's throat.

Hiccup, who had finished clearing his throat of the salt water, froze as he heard the familiar sound of gas hissing. Without hesitating, he threw himself on the Night Fury's head, shocking the dragon from completing the fireball and causing them to tumble back underwater.

Taking the opportunity to get away from the pissed off dragon, the wolf turned around and began to paddle back to shore. It heard splashing behind it, looking back only to see the dragon that was currently having a hard time seeing with the boy covering its eyes. The dragon thrashed around, with the boy struggling to hold on.

Now Hiccup was normally an easy-going boy. He was not what most people would call an angry person; rather he was sarcastic, witty, and always managed to make light of something no matter how serious. However, even Hiccup himself had his limit considering the circumstances of the situation involved. And at that moment, after having almost been drowned twice, bitten by a wolf for no apparent reason, and sweltering in the bright, hot heat of the afternoon sun in less than a day, he exploded.

"TOOTHLESS, IF YOU DON'T CALM DOWN RIGHT NOW, I SWEAR I WILL NOT FLY WITH YOU FOR A WHOLE MONTH!" Hiccup shouted in a bout of uncharacteristic anger. Toothless calmed down instantly, never really having heard his rider angry before. The duo went completely still, floating silently in the ocean; the wolf, meanwhile, got back on land, shook its fur of the water, and then sat down to observe what was happening.

"Okay, Toothless, I'm only gonna say this once." Hiccup explained in a tone of forced calm. Toothless slowly nodded. "I'm going to remove my hands from your eyes. And when I do, we're head to back to land," Another nod, "You're going to leave that wolf alone," Toothless growled slightly, but nodded again. "And I'll try to figure out why we couldn't fly."

The Night Fury gave one last nod, and Hiccup removed his hands from the dragon's eyes. The dragon didn't even look at his rider, but instead turned his body upright and began to idly paddle back to shore.

Hiccup sighed while shaking his hands through his hair to get the water out. He knew that Toothless was very protective of him and probably did what he did with the best of intentions, but this misunderstanding nearly resulted in the wolf ending up a red stain in the water. And from what he had seen before Toothless had intervened, the canine was trying to prevent him from drowning. If it considered him a threat earlier, then why would it have even bothered? He wished that he could read minds so that he could understand the thought processes of animals.

The trip to the shore was a short one. The dragon walked up the beach, before flopping down in the sand. Hiccup grunted from the unexpected drop, but he proceeded to climb off the saddle. Right now, he needed to check the flying harness to see what the problem was.

From the looks of it, the saddle was fine, his leg was fine, the attachments between the leg and tail-fin were secure, so what...

...

Hiccup stared at the tail-fin, and groaned as he saw the shredded fabric hanging off the metal skeleton of the harness. Why was it that of all the things to go wrong, it had to be the most important part of the harness? Did the gods really hate him that much?

If it had just been a tear, it would have been easy to patch up, but the whole fin was currently in tatters. Without it, he and Toothless would be stuck on the island for a long time. Unless...

Hiccup turned around, seeing if the wolf was still there. To his surprise, it was. It had apparently been watching them both the whole time. It sat just a few feet away, tilting its head as it took in the sight of the situation. Surely, if this thing was trained enough to understand what a 'goodbye meant, then it probably had an owner who could help him.

Now he only needed a way to approach it without scaring it off. Or preferably, with both hands intact.


	5. Chapter 5

**Author's Notes: Hello everybody! New chapter today! I've had a little more free time lately, so I've managed to get some chapter outlines done. So for the next few weeks, you can expect an update from me every Friday for sure!**

**Also, I would like to give credit to the author Sandfire Kat for helping me decide some of the future concepts for this story. **

**Reviews are welcome and appreciated. If you come across any problem in this story, grammar or plot-wise, PLEASE let me know.**

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Chapter 5: Establishing Good Relations

Did fate really need to be so cruel?

The wolf, after observing the strange harness, realized that the boy was needed to ride the dragon. Only problem was, the tail looked damaged beyond repair. And considering how the boy face-palmed himself when he saw how shredded the tail part of the harness was, it was probably the most important part of the whole thing.

What now? The boy obviously had no choice but to stay here, and the mistress, despite being a patient woman, would start to get suspicious. It was rare that the mistress met her 'guests' down near the beach. She preferred to wait for them to come to her. It's more dramatic that way, she would always say, in that smug, self-satisfied voice toward her victims. It still made the wolf growl every time it thought about it.

The boy seemed done with his observation, and instead started looking around, until his eyes fell on the wolf. The boy seemed nervous though, as if he was afraid of doing something stupid. 'Toothless' meanwhile, lifted his head to regard the boy. The dragon followed where the boy's eyes were resting, and the wolf shivered at how distrustful the dragon's eyes were when they landed on it.

Obviously, for whatever reason, the boy wanted to talk to it, but the dragon was giving a look that clearly meant that it did not appreciate the wolf's presence AT ALL. The wolf knew that it needed to do something to earn both their trust. But what?

A sudden glint of sunlight from the sand stung the wolf's eyes. It squint its eyes from the disturbance before realizing that the glint had come from the knife that the boy (for whatever insane reason) had discarded. He must have forgotten it in his haste to escape the island.

Wait...

Hiccup watched as the wolf turned its head to the side. He followed the eyes towards the knife that lay half-buried in the sand. It was just a common knife from Berk, so it hadn't really mattered to him whether he lost it or not.

Then, to his (and Toothless) surprise, the wolf sauntered over towards the knife, pawed the sand off it, and carefully grabbed it by the handle with its snout. It then proceeded to simply walk towards Hiccup, who was currently baffled by the action. Toothless, in his own surprise, forgot to growl as it came closer.

The wolf continued walking forward until it was only an arm's length away from Hiccup. It dropped the knife at his feet before sitting back on its hind legs, tail swishing. Toothless could swear that it had a proud look on its face.

Hiccup bent down to grab the knife, but was still staring intently at the wolf. Why would it give his only weapon back to him? Was it considering him a friend now?

"Uuuuuuuuh... Thanks." Hiccup said in a confused tone. The wolf barked once, as if to say 'You're welcome.'

Toothless, on the other hand, got over his surprise sooner than Hiccup did. He extended a wing in front of his rider and growled, showing his teeth. The wolf backed away, its happy demeanor instantly becoming submissive.

"Toothless..." Hiccup said exasperatedly, turning around and placing his hand on the dragon's snout. He gently brought down the dragon's head until their faces were inches from each other's. The wolf, feeling the tension, did nothing but sit still, nervous that the dragon would attack if it made any sudden moves.

"Listen Toothless," Hiccup whispered. "I know you're uncomfortable with this, but this wolf is probably the only one who can help us with your tail.

Toothless ears perked up. What ABOUT his tail? Turning his head around, his face fell when he saw the shredded fin. He groaned. The fabric must have been shredded from the first landing in the water. His rider wouldn't be able to fix it,

But what did Hiccup mean? How could that confused, morally-ambiguous wolf possibly-?

"Think about it! If this wolf is able to be comfortable around a human and a dragon, then surely SOMEONE had to train it. Maybe they can help us." Hiccup explained, noticing the bafflement the dragon was experiencing.

Toothless shook his head, lowering himself down to his Rider's bruised left hand, nuzzling and crooning sadly.

Hiccup sighed once before speaking. "I know it hurt me earlier. I still don't know why it did that, but it DID try to help me when we landed again in the water."

Toothless's eyes widened. Was that what the wolf had been trying to do? Help his rider? He thought the wolf had been trying to kill Hiccup when he saw the wolf biting down on the Viking's shirt.

"If we want to get off this island, you're just going to have to be patient and let me handle the wolf, okay? Toothless nodded. While he felt a little bad for his attempted murder of the canine, he was still going to be cautious. After all, his Rider's hand would probably have those teeth marks for a really long time.

Seeing that his dragon friend was soothed, Hiccup turned around to find the wolf gazing at him. Only its tail moved, swishing back and forth across the sand. Getting in his knees, Hiccup extended his right hand carefully; afraid that if he moved too fast, he would scare or even provoke the wolf.

For a minute, it did nothing… then it set one paw forward. It lifted its gaze towards the dragon, seeing whether or not it was safe. Toothless, while still slightly uncomfortable with the wolf's presence, did nothing but watch as the wolf decreased the distance between itself and his rider.

The wolf took a few more steps before finding it's snout a few inches away from the boy's hand. It saw that the boy had turned his head away for some reason. The wolf gave one last look at the dragon, as if asking for permission.

Toothless hesitated for a moment, and then nodded.

The wolf turned back towards the boy, who had not moved from his position. It sniffed at the hand a few times before licking in between the boy's fingers with its pink, slimy tongue, tasting the dried salt from the ocean.

Hiccup gasped at the sudden, wet contact, and then giggled at the tickling sensation from the tongue. The wolf licked his hand a few more times before moving up to the human's chest to start at his face.

Hiccup leaned back, laughing as the wolf licked his cheek. The wolf, hearing the boy's stifled giggles, lifted its front paws and brought them down on the boy's shoulders; causing the boy to tumble backwards (Toothless started to get up, but after seeing that his rider was still laughing, simply remained where he was.)

The wolf moved its head forward to gently lick the boy's nose. Hiccup, in the meantime, brought both hands up and began rubbing the canine's ears. The wolf abruptly stopped licking, stiffening at the contact before once again melting into the affectionate rubbing. It closed its eyes as Hiccup's hands ran over the fuzzy pair of ears.

Hiccup smiled. "You're a good boy, aren't you?"

The wolf's eyes shot open, shooting Hiccup a deadpan expression with its hazel eyes before backing away. Standing up on his feet, Hiccup looked to see what was wrong before the wolf rolled onto its back.

Hiccup was confused about the action for a moment before noticing that certain glands were missing from in between the wolf's hind legs. He rubbed the back of his head and blushed in embarrassment as he realized what the wolf was trying to tell him.

"I'm sorry. I guess I meant to say 'good girl'."

Toothless snorted.


	6. Chapter 6

**Author's Notes: Ive decided to put up a chapter one day early for the Thankgiving holiday. So here you go. :)**

**Reviews are welcome and appreciated.**

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Chapter 6: Back to Square One

The wolf blushed in embarrassment. While she knew that her action was necessary for the boy to realize her gender, it didn't change the fact that she was showing her...extremities in front of him. Then again, she was a wolf, so it didn't really matter.

Feeling a shadow fall over her form, she opened her eyes and leaned her body to the side. The boy was now sitting on his knees next to her, while the dragon stood behind him. Fortunately, the dragon looked much more at ease with her around, so she relaxed a little, enjoying the heat of the summer sun bathing down upon her.

The boy put both arms gently on her chest. She inhaled sharply at the unexpected contact, but then huffed softly as the boy began to scratch. After all, it had been a long time since she had actual human contact.

"Wow, you're friendlier than I expected you to be." Hiccup commented. The wolf sighed contentedly, enjoying how his hands ran over her belly and back. Was scratching and rubbing always this satisfying?

The boy's hands were soft as they raked through her smooth, grey fur. She would have fallen asleep right then and there in her pleasure...

"Your caretaker must be really nice, huh?"

...if it weren't for that comment.

Her eyes snapped open from the comforting bliss. What was she DOING?! This boy was still in danger, and here she was lapping up his kindness like a dog.

...

Which she was, but that wasn't the point. What was the point was helping the boy fix the harness so he could escape the mistress. She jumped to all fours, startling Hiccup.

"Hey, what's wrong?" Hiccup asked. He had enjoyed petting the wolf, but the canine had abruptly stood up when he mentioned a caretaker. The wolf, in the meantime, simply stood there, racking her brain for a way to prevent this boy from meeting the mistress. He couldn't leave, so scaring him was pointless and would only serve to get herself killed by the dragon. What could she-

"_Bring him here_."

The wolf's body stiffened. She felt an unconscionable urge in her body that did not belong to her. A freezing coldness enveloped her, causing her to shake violently despite the fact that the sun was at its hottest and brightest. She slowly turned towards the bewildered boy, voicelessly begging him to run.

Hiccup was baffled once again by the wolf's change in behavior. It wasn't threatening him, but it was shivering like it was in cold weather. Which didn't make sense as it was hot enough to give anyone heatstroke. Toothless was providing him shade with his wings fortunately.

Toothless was also confused, but felt also felt a little concerned for the wolf. She looked very uncomfortable, and her body was shaking in a sporadic manner, almost as if she was having a fight within herself.

"_Bring the boy to me_."

An even colder feeling went through the wolf's body, overwhelming her and causing her to collapse back in the sand. She rolled across the hot sand to ease the cold, but her body was still numb and freezing.

Hiccup began to feel uncomfortable as he watched the wolf collapse and writhe in the sand. Didn't it feel hot? It had to be hotter than the Gobber's forge on a busy day. Worry and concern overwhelmed his common sense, and he approached the canine.

"What's the matter? Are you hurt? Show me what's wrong!" He said, getting down on his knees and attempting to stop the wolf from shaking. Toothless came forward as well, concerned for his rider's safety. He was worried about the wolf too, but to a lesser extent.

The wolf unexpectedly snapped its jaws at Hiccup's hands. Toothless reacted immediately by wrapping his arms around his rider and pulling the boy away, snarling at the wolf. Hiccup protested, but a shake of his head made from the dragon made him slump down in defeat.

To the dragon's surprise, rather than whining from his snarl, the wolf utterly ignored him and went back to shaking and rolling itself in the sand.

The wolf felt as though her body was on ice, and the hot sand was doing nothing to help. She was glad the dragon had dragged the boy away from her, but she felt bad about the instinctual bite toward the boy earlier, due to the excruciating cold her body was being subjected to.

Her grey, sand-covered fur was standing on end, her body felt like it was on ice, and she clenched her eyes shut. She whimpered, begging this pain to stop.

"_Bring that male to me __**NOW**__!_"

Hiccup, looking past Toothless's arms, saw the wolf suddenly cease in its shaking. It's back faced him, and he couldn't see whether or not it was breathing. Toothless, no longer sensing any danger, set his rider down, but stayed close.

Then the wolf's ears flicked. Hiccup let out a sigh of relief from the breath he had been holding. He had no idea what had happened, but the wolf was still alive at least.

It's back still facing towards them, both human and dragon watched as the wolf pushed herself to all fours. She shook herself, getting off some of the sand on her fur. Once she finished, the wolf simply stood there.

"Are you alright?" Hiccup asked.

The wolf did not even look at Hiccup, but instead took a deep breath, lifted its head up, and proceeded to release a low, drawn-out howl.

Toothless's eyes narrowed at this. Something wasn't right.

Hiccup started forward. "Are you alright?" he repeated.

The howl continued for a few more seconds before the wolf finally turned towards him, growling dangerously. Hiccup pause in fear, but inside his mind buzzed from the shock and confusion of the wolf's abrupt aggressiveness.

Toothless ran forward instantly, standing in front of his shocked rider and growling as well. What the hell was this wolf's problem?! It had been fine up until a few seconds ago. Now it was treating his human like he was his worst enemy. He glared into the wolf's eyes as the canine splayed itself in a defensive position, snarling threateningly and baring his teeth.

This action made Toothless stop his own growling and instead tilt his head in confusion. He watched as the wolf bared its own teeth and growled louder, as if trying to challenge the Night Fury. And considering how the wolf was smart enough to learn its place earlier, this indicated to Toothless that something definitely was wrong here.

Hiccup, who was looking over the dragon's shoulder, was trying to understand what had happened to make the wolf react this way. What was causing this aggressive behavior? The way the wolf was looking at them, it looked as if it-

Hiccup paused, feeling that something was off about the canine. Taking another close look at the wolf, he gasped in horror at his discovery:

Where there was once two kind and perfectly hazel eyes now consisted only one left hazel eye and a bright, blue shimmering right eye. Before Hiccup could say or do anything else, the wolf, apparently at the end of its patience, sprang forward.

The wolf snarled.

Hiccup yelled.

Toothless reacted.


	7. Chapter 7

**Author's Notes: Here's another chapter like I promised. **

**Now I know most people would rather want me to update New Life Ahead than this story. Well... the big problem I'm having right now with New Life**** Ahead is that I've kinda written myself into a corner with that one.**

**If you look at all three of my stories. you'll find that I usually have no problem with at least 3-5 characters at one time. A Rider's Oddysey is much easier for me to write right now because I only established a few characters at the moment.**

**However, New Life Ahead is going into a situation where I will probably have too many characters to keep track of. That's why I'm taking so long to update with it. I'm sorry to all the fans of that story, but New Life Ahead will take a while for me to figure out where I'm going with it. **

**On a good note though, this story has several chapter outlines planned out and ready, so A Rider's Oddysey is a story you can expect weekly updates from.**

**Reviews are welcome and appreciated.**

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Chapter 7: Wolf Aid

*THWACK!*

The wolf went flying from the force of Toothless's tail. Having been startled from the wolf's attack and fearing for his rider's safety, Toothless had immediately spun his body around to smack the canine away with his tail.

The wolf flew through the air and landed hard on the sand with a thud. She released a pain-filled howl as her right foreleg connected first and the rest of the body followed a second later. After skidding a few feet, she stopped and lay completely still. For a minute, Hiccup went stiff as both he and Toothless thought that the wolf had died from the impact.

That thought was shattered when they noticed the wolf's tail move once. The wolf trembled as she began to bring herself back to all fours, but yelped and collapsed back into the sand as soon as she put weight on her right foreleg, whimpering slightly. She whined pathetically and curled in upon herself, clenching her eyes in pain.

Hiccup, feeling his heart literally break at hearing the wolf's version of crying, attempted to run forward to it without thinking. Toothless however, would have none of it, and quickly used his wings to block his rider. While the dragon felt a little bad for the pain the wolf was going through, he didn't feel quite as sympathetic as Hiccup did.

"Toothless, let me go! I have to help her." Hiccup protested, pushing against the dragon's wings. He could still hear the wolf's cries through the wing membrane.

The Night Fury calmly grumbled and shook his head. The wolf was still dangerous to his rider and he wasn't going to let Hiccup foolishly endanger himself.

"Toothless, please! There's something wrong with her! She's not herself." Hiccup said desperately. Toothless looked at Hiccup skeptically. What did he mean 'not herself'? Did his rider not see the attempt on his life?

Hiccup, seeing the Fury's confusion, slapped his hand to his face. "I can't really explain it right now, but I don't think it was her fault for attacking me."

Toothless snorted, clearly unbelieving of what Hiccup was saying. Was his rider just making excuses for the canine? That thing was ready to tear his throat out! Did his rider really think that just because he was able to 'tame' dragons, he could do the same with every other wild predator?

Realizing that Toothless would not understand his explanation, Hiccup sighed exasperatedly.

"For Thor's sake Toothless, look at her! She's in pain!"

Toothless did as Hiccup suggested. The wolf was still whimpering on the ground, with a paw that was most likely sprained or broken. While he did feel sympathy, that didn't change the fact that this wolf's mood swings would be hazardous to his rider's safety. Toothless turned back to Hiccup, hesitantly, but firmly shaking his head.

Hiccup groaned. What would he do? Toothless would never believe him if he told the dragon about the wolf's eyes. While he had no solid explanation so far, he knew that the wolf's right blue eye was not natural. Something about it felt wrong, and it did not belong to the wolf.

However, the wolf's eyes would have to wait. Right now, all that mattered was making sure that the wolf would be all right. He couldn't simply leave it here with an injured paw; it would die either from starvation or probably from another predator that was on this island.

It reminded him a lot of when Toothless was trapped in the cove.

"I'm sorry about this Toothless." Hiccup said sadly. Toothless grumbled in confusion. What was his rider apologizing for?

Then without warning, he felt Hiccup's hand go under his chin and scratch softly at that special dragon's spot. Instantly, Toothless succumbed to the touch. He tried to fight it, but the technique always worked when he wasn't expected it. His green eyes glazed over from the unwanted pleasure, and his wings uncurled from Hiccup's body as he fell on his back. He fell into a heavy sleep and would not wake up for a while.

Hiccup looked back at his dragon sadly. He felt bad for doing a dirty trick like that, but the wolf's safety was important. Pulling off the leather straps from his harness, Hiccup held them in both hands as he ran towards the wolf.

Getting down on his knees behind the wolf, which was half-conscious from the pain, Hiccup examined the paw. He winced as he saw that the injury was bloody and had some sand on it. It was probably infected already, and the sea water would not be suitable for cleaning it.

He set down his harness, and then slowly reached for the paw. As soon as he was about to touch it however, the wolf's eyes snapped open. It lifted its head up and growled menacingly towards the boy, but Hiccup noticed that its right eye was still glowing blue while the left hazel eye seemed normal. It whimpered in between each growl as a spasm of pain went through its leg. Hiccup retracted his arm, barely dodging the bite it made towards his hand.

Hiccup, realizing he could not work in these conditions, secretly grabbed a handful of sand. He muttered a quick apology before unexpectedly throwing the sand into the wolf's eyes.

The wolf yelped at the stinging in her eyes, using her one good paw in an attempt to get the sand out. Hiccup, meanwhile, took the opportunity to grab the leather strap off his harness, looped his arm around the wolf's head, and proceeded to wrap the leather strap around the wolf's snout in a makeshift muzzle. The wolf struggled, but Hiccup, with difficulty, managed to secure it tightly without preventing the wolf from breathing.

"I'm sorry about that, but I can't help you if you're attacking me." Hiccup said. He reached into the interior of his vest, pulling out a leather canteen filled with fresh water. Still holding the wolf's head, he poured a few drops onto the wolf's eyes to get the sand out. The wolf flinched at the cold wetness, but felt a small relief from the stinging in her eyes.

Hiccup let go of the wolf's head, but set his body down gently on the wolf's body to keep it from thrashing. He proceeded to then pour much of the water on the wolf's paw in an attempt to get the sand off. The wolf whined at the water, but felt relieved as the sand was washed away from the bloody fur.

Examining the injury again up close, Hiccup could instantly tell that it was a sprained paw. His experience as Berk's 'expert' dragon trainer had taught him how to handle injuries of the other dragons. He had gotten used to seeing gruesome things like blood and open wounds, and was taught the best way to treat them by the elder of the village.

Reaching into his vest once again, Hiccup pulled out the patches of extra padding for the tail fin. He would have typically saved this for when Toothless's tail would get a tear, but as the tail fin was currently in tatters, it was kind of pointless.

"Hold still. This might sting." He told the muzzled wolf. With that said Hiccup lifted the paw carefully and began wrapping the cloth gently around the wound. She whimpered from the pain, but to his surprise, did not struggle as much as he expected.

Hiccup continued wrapping until the whole wound was covered. He tied it just enough to keep the paw from bending, but loose enough to prevent blood constriction. Wiping his head of the sweat, he backed off the wolf and watched to see what she would do next.

The wolf, after wiping her eyes a few more times to get out the remnants of sand, looked down at her foreleg. Needless to say, she was shocked at the makeshift bandage the boy had put on her paw. It was crude, but it worked to help protect her paw from the outside elements. She slowly rose to her feet, being careful about putting weight on her right paw. She winced as she set it down, but the pain wasn't as prominent as it was before. She observed the wrappings for a minute before looking at the boy.

Hiccup was about to ask the wolf whether it was okay before it turned towards him. He inhaled sharply, hoping that the wolf would stay calm this time around. The canine did nothing but gaze silently at him however, and to his relief and confusion, the wolf's blue right eye had gone back to being a naturally hazel one.

Hiccup's brow creased together. Where did it go? Did that go away when he threw sand in its eyes? What was it anyway? He was about ready to voice these questions (which was dumb considering the wolf wouldn't have been able to answer him anyway) when a shadow fell over him.

Thinking it was an awakened Toothless, Hiccup let out a long drawn-out sigh. He knew that the dragon was most likely upset with him for pulling a stunt like that.

"Listen Toothless," Hiccup said without turning around. "I know you're probably mad at me right now, but I can assure you that there is a perfectly good reason for why I did what did."

A low growl followed his explanation. Hiccup let out an indignant huff, not noticing the scared expression the wolf was giving the figure behind him.

"Come on bud, don't be that way. Hiccup said, turning around to face Toothless. "I only did that becauuuuuuuuuaaaaaaaaaaaaAAA AAAAAAAAAAAH!"

*ROOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAR!*the figure responded.


	8. Chapter 8

**Author's Notes: Good news everyone! I've decided that for the rest of December, I will try and upload at least two chapters every Friday as a Christmas gift to all of you! Neat, huh?**

**Now I know that my chapters are short compared to other story updates, but I try my best to make sure a story is coherent and well-written. I tend to focus more on quality over quantity. Otherwise, my story would be padded as hell.**

**Anyways, expect two chapters today and the other Fridays this December. My only wish is a welcome and appreciated review.**

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Chapter 8: Eyes and Blood

Hiccup was literally thrown off his feet from the force of the creature's roar. He fell on his back, pain shooting through his spine. He groaned in pain before quickly looking back up at the creature, gasping heavily in fear.

The creature was at least twice the size of his dad... and just as intimidating. It was covered entirely in thick, brown fur, stood on it's hind legs, and had a snout similar to that of a dog's.

It was a bear.

Hiccup crawled away from the mammal, which was now looking down at him with anger. It growled dangerously as it got down on all fours, approaching him with a clear intent to kill.

But what shocked Hiccup most of all (besides the fact that he was about to die slowly and painfully) was the fact that the bear's eyes were glowing a bright blue. Just like the wolf's had been.

Just as the bear lunged forward to do Odin-knows-what to Hiccup, the sand in front of it exploded in a blue flash of light. Both human and bear were showered in sand, hacking and coughing from the smoke while ears rang from the blast.

Hiccup, despite his disorientation, was barely to make out a black blur running into a brown blob. As his senses came back into focus, he heard growling and snarling being intertwined with one another. The ringing in his ears slowly transitioned into a loud rising screeching before he shut his eyes from the warm liquid that splattered over his face.

Hiccup wiped off the strange liquid. Just as his eyes came back into focus however, he realized that his left hand was entirely covered in a red substance. It had a strong, metallic smell to it, and it was splattered all over his face and chest.

It was blood.

Hiccup inhaled sharply. While he was used to seeing blood due to his experience in the past dragon raids, he preferred to be far away from the scene of battle.

Now here he was, covered in it.

He heard a grunt. Tearing his eyes away from the red that was staining his hair, face, hands, and pretty much everywhere on his body, he turned towards the source of the sound. And gasped.

Toothless was now looking down at him with a half-lidded expression, one that came with a mouth that was currently dripping with blood and matted with brown fur. The boy looked past Toothless, and cringed at the sight of the bloody carcass that was the bear. The area around it was literally painted with blood, and the bear's throat was torn out like a piece of paper.

Hiccup gazed up at the dragon pathetically, knowing that while Toothless had saved him, the dragon was obviously still sore from the forced nap Hiccup had put him in. Hiccup did nothing but smile at the Night Fury nervously, hoping to break the tension.

Toothless sprang forward, and before Hiccup could react, the dragon had grabbed him by the back of his shirt, spun around once, and tossed the young Viking several feet into the ocean.

Hiccup yelled as he landed in the water (again) with a loud splash. Fortunately, he had landed in the shallower end of the ocean, so it didn't take long for him to walk back onto the beach. He glared at Toothless the whole way, who in turn was now rolling around on his back, waving his legs in the air and warbling in amusement.

"Okay. Okay. I get it." Hiccup said. The dragon stopped rolling at the sound of Hiccup's voice, a glint of amusement present in his eyes. "I'm sorry and I won't ever do that again."

The dragon gave a gummy smile towards the Viking. Hiccup chuckled a little at that, but then sighed heavily as the sight of the bear came into view. His brow creased in sympathy for the now dead animal.

"Couldn't you have at least just knocked it out or something though?" Hiccup asked. Toothless let his gummy smile drop. He looked at the bear, gazing at it in anger before letting out a hiss. The dragon then walked over towards Hiccup, putting his head on the boy's shoulder and whining slightly.

Hiccup sighed once again, raising his arm to pat the Night Fury's head softly. He couldn't blame Toothless for saving his life again, but he felt as though he had been a little hasty in his decision to kill. While Hiccup knew that Toothless was still a dragon, he felt that killing a threat should ALWAYS be a last resort.

And the blue glowing eyes still remained in his mind. First the wolf and now the bear? It didn't make any s-

"The wolf!" Hiccup exclaimed. He'd forgotten all about it in his situation with the bear. Ignoring Toothless's warble of concern, he turned his head around to where he had last seen it. But it was gone.

"It must have left when the bear came!" Hiccup said to Toothless, who was now staring at him in confusion and disbelief. "Toothless, we have to find it!"

Toothless was stupefied. Was his rider still concerned with that dangerous fur-ball?! He growled, lowly, shaking his head. There was no way he was going to let his rider pointlessly endanger himself again. It had attacked him two times already!

Hiccup, seeing that his friend wasn't really motivated to comply, tried to explain. "Toothless! That wolf belongs to someone! I know it!"

Toothless shook his head again.

Hiccup let out an exasperated sigh. "Come on, Toothless! Don't be that way! I know it hasn't really been consistent, especially with how it's been treating me." Toothless snorted. His rider was definitely right about that. The bruises still showed in his rider's left hand.

Hiccup pointed at the jungle. "But even then, there's still a chance that it has an owner who can help us rebuild your tail!"

"And that I can do." Said an unfamiliar and feminine-sounding voice. Both dragon and human turned their heads simultaneously to the forest.


	9. Chapter 9

**Author's Notes: I'm sorry for not keeping my promise of two chapters last week. I though I had put it up, but I didn't do it properly. Anyways, here's the next chapter. I'll put up the other later.**

**Short chapter, I know. But the other will be relatively longer. **

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Chapter 9: Introductions

Hiccup had once believed that he would never meet a girl more attractive than Astrid. The sudden appearance of this woman however, made him erase those thoughts completely.

The woman stood proudly at the edge of the forest, wearing a beautifully white dress that seemed to brighten in the sunlight even as he stared at it. Her hair was a raven-black color, tied into a ponytail that extended down to her shoulders. Her skin was a soft tan, the same color as the sand on the beach him and Toothless were standing on. Her lips were the color of blood, pulled back into a proud smile. She looked plain and simple at first glance, but her beauty become more stunning the longer he stared.

But the part that got his attention the most was her blue-moon eyes. Even though she stood a few yards away, they seemed to glow visibly. Hiccup was broken out of his trance as he felt a shiver go up his spine to his confusion.

Toothless on the other hand, was surprised that this human was able to sneak up on him and Hiccup without making a sound. Her gaze switched towards Toothless, and while the woman gave him a charming smile as well, something about it made Toothless feel uncomfortable.

"Greetings, young boy, and welcome to my island." greeted the woman, her voice smooth and sweet. She strolled down the beach, being careful of avoiding the blood from the dead bear. She gave a look of disgust at the body. "I'm so sorry about what happened earlier. This pet of mine wasn't fully domesticated yet."

Hiccup's eyes widened. "Wait, that huge animal was your PET?! He exclaimed. How could a woman like her tame something like that?

The woman turned back to Hiccup, smiling all the while. She chuckled slightly, making Hiccup frown. If that bear was her pet, she didn't seem all too concerned at the fact that it was dead.

"It shouldn't come as too much of a surprise. After all, you tamed that dragon, did you not?" She gestured towards Toothless, who simply went and stood on his hind legs next to his rider. He grumbled in irritation, tired of everyone confusing him for a simple pet.

"Oh no, no, no." Hiccup said, shaking his head and waving his arms back and forth in between each other. "Toothless is NOT my pet. He's my best friend." He corrected. Toothless purred at that, rubbing his head against Hiccup's. The boy smiled.

The woman's eyebrows rose a bit. "I see. I'm impressed that a dragon such as he is friends with one who is obviously a Viking. Doesn't your tribe kill dragons?" She asked.

Hiccup and Toothless cringed at that. "Well..." Hiccup began, uncomfortable at the unexpected question. "We used to, but I found a better way." He said.

The woman walked forward to Hiccup, her dress seeming to flow right over the sand, until she was standing directly in front of Hiccup, close but not close enough to be intruding. Being slightly taller than Hiccup, she put her hands on her knees and bent down; regarding Hiccup the same way a grandmother would towards a child. Despite this, both dragon and human watched with a sense of unease.

"Care to elaborate?" She asked sweetly, seemingly not noticing the queasy expression on Hiccup's face. "I would simply love to hear how this happened."

Hiccup, feeling that this was an innocent question, smiled. "Okay then." He got down on his knees, settling into the sand. "You may want to get comfortable though. It's a LONG story".

The woman shrugged, getting down on her own knees in the process. "Take your time." she responded.

It's not like you'll be heading anywhere else soon, is it?" She muttered lowly under her breath. Hiccup didn't seem to hear her, but Toothless, with his superior hearing, narrowed his eyes. He regarded the woman for a moment before simply laying down on his stomach, watching her intently but listening as Hiccup began describing Berk.

"By the way," The woman interrupted, stopping Hiccup just as he was describing Berk's location between Hopeless and Freezing to Death. "I never did quite get your name young man." She pointed out.

"Oh. My name is Hiccup." Hiccup answered. The woman gave a chuckle at the name. "What's yours ma'am?"

The woman grinned.

"My name is Circe."


	10. Chapter 10

**Author's Notes: Here's the next one!**

* * *

Chapter 10: Help

The sky was a red-orange hue by the time Hiccup neared the end his tale. Toothless had started a fire in the meantime, after noticing how dark it was getting.

Circe, meanwhile, had been a surprisingly patient listener during Hiccup's description of events. She was currently sitting with her hands wrapped around her knees, watching in fascination as Hiccup told her about the aftermath of the battle with the Red Death.

"I woke up several weeks later according to what my dad told me. I have to say, I wasn't expecting my village to accept dragons as fast as they did." Hiccup admitted. "So far, it's been doing pretty well. We do get the odd complaint here and there every once in a while, but other than that, everyone in town has their own dragon."

"I see." Circe replied, staring intently at Hiccup with her eyes that seemed to brighten in the light of the fire. "I must say, you are one very unique individual, Hiccup." She commented.

Hiccup blushed. He was used to being complimented, but no one had ever really called him unique before.

"My goodness!" Circe exclaimed. "Look how late it is! You better get home before your father and friends start to worry about you." She gestured towards the nighttime stars that were now beginning to show.

Hiccup rubbed the back of his head, chuckling nervously. "Yeah-ha-ha, you see... Toothless and I crashed here by mistake. We can't really get home right now because the tail-fin Toothless needs to fly is...well..."

Toothless brought up his tail, revealing the shredded remains of the fin.

"...broken."

Circe looked genuinely surprised. "Well that's terrible!" She said dramatically, putting both hands on her cheeks.

Hiccup frowned. For some reason, he felt that reaction was a little forced. He said nothing about it though. He sighed heavily. "Yeah… I know. We've been trapped here since this morning and when I woke up, this wolf came and-" The Viking's eyes widened in realization as he remembered what he'd been doing before Circe arrived.

"Hey, wait! You wouldn't happen to have a pet wolf, would you?" He asked. He had completely forgotten about it, having been caught up in his tale.

Circe brought her left hand to her chin, seeming to think about the question."Hmmmmmmmm...A wolf you say... Oh yes!" she exclaimed, clapping her hands together once. Standing up from her sitting position, she turned back to the jungle, put her fingers to her lips and proceeded to blow an unnaturally loud whistle. Hiccup and Toothless cringed at the piercing noise, Hiccup covering his ears while Toothless shook his head to stop the ringing.

"That's probably loud enough to reach across this whole island." Hiccup thought. "Where did she learn to do that?"

Complete silence followed the whistle Circe gave. She simply stood with her arms crossed, tapping her foot impatiently. She seemed to be waiting for something.

As Hiccup and Toothless waited for her to finish whatever she was doing, the sun set over the horizon, leaving the fire as the group's only source of light.

The sound of rustling reached everyone's ears. Hiccup creased his eyes together in confusion, wondering where the noise was coming from.

"Uuuuuuuh... Excuse me, but what exactly are we waiting for?" asked Hiccup.

Circe didn't answer him, but at that moment, Hiccup saw something come through the trees. He squinted as he tried to make out what it was, and then gasped as he saw that it was the grey wolf from earlier. Toothless growled low in his throat, but a quick nudge from Hiccup made him stop.

The wolf trotted up to Circe, going around the woman once before sitting down in front of her, panting. Circe squatted down to the wolf's level, reaching out a hand without fear and proceeded to run it through the wolf's furry head.

Hiccup noticed that the wolf did not have the muzzle or bandages he had put on it, nor did it seemed to be in pain from its paw. In fact, it looked just as healthy as it did when he first met it.

He creased his brow in confusion. That paw should have taken at least a week to heal, but the wolf seemed completely uninjured by the looks of it.

"She's a marvelous pet, isn't she?" Circe said with pride, turning her head to grin at Hiccup while rubbing the wolf's head.

Hiccup was about to comment on his earlier events with the wolf when his eyes caught sight of the eyes. The right eye was again an out-of-place blue and its gaze towards him was one of indifference. Looking back at Circe, his own eyes widened when he realized that her eyes were just like the wolf's.

First the wolf, then the bear, and now this lady? Something wasn't right.

"Is something wrong?" Circe asked, looking back when Hiccup didn't answer. She stood up, leaving the wolf sitting silently with a dead, empty expression on its face.

Toothless meanwhile, was taken aback by how calm and deathly void the wolf was acting. It was sitting as stiff as a statue and its expression was-

Toothless snorted, shaking his head of the feeling. Since when did he feel concern for the animal that had hurt his rider? Then again, it was weird that it was doing okay after having been hit several feet through the air by him.

And wasn't its paw supposed to be broken or something?

Hiccup, in the meantime, was snapped out of his thoughts by Circe's question. While he was still confused and somewhat uneasy by this strange development, he mentally pushed it away somewhere else in his mind. Right now, what was important was finding a way to fix the tail and get home. Besides, how would Circe react if he told her that the wolf was nearly killed by his friend?

"Yeah...everything is okay." He lied. "The thing I can't leave without fixing the tail. You wouldn't happen to have any spare materials here, would you?"

Hiccup swore that there was something creepy about the way she smiled at that.

"Of course." She answered. 'I'm glad to be of service."

She snapped her fingers, to which the wolf responded by turning around and disappearing into the trees.

Circe curtsied at Hiccup before turning towards the jungle. She proceeded to bend down towards the fire, grabbed a thick, burning piece of wood, and held on from the end as a makeshift torch.

"Follow me." Circe said. "I'll lead you to my humble abode. I'm sure you're tired and famished from today?"

As if on cue, both Hiccup and Toothless stomachs growled from lack of sustenance. Hiccup blushed in embarrassment while Toothless groaned.

"Now that you mention it, I guess Toothless and I could both use something to eat...if that's okay?" Hiccup quickly added, remembering the few manners he was ever taught on Berk.

Circe didn't reply. Instead, she ignored Hiccup and gracefully walked into the jungle, holding the torch up to light the way.

Hiccup looked up at Toothless. "I guess that's a yes?" he asked confusedly.

Toothless rolled his eyes, and then proceeded to nudge his rider forward with his snout. Hiccup, taking the Night Fury's message, followed the light of the torch, Toothless coming not far behind him.

As the Fury's tail disappeared into the jungle, no one noticed as the still strong bonfire in the middle of the beach abruptly went out, leaving only the darkness, sound of the crashing waves, and the buzzing of flies on the bear's corpse.


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter 11: A Dinner to Die For

When Circe had said 'humble abode,' Hiccup had thought she meant a small, wooden home like the ones on Berk. Or at the very least, a small treehouse made for only one occupant. After all, the only people here were him and Circe as far as he could tell.

For the last hour of walking they'd been doing, Hiccup was worried: Where she would find room in her 'humble abode' for both him and a full-grown dragon?

To his surprise, Circe's home was about as far away from 'humble' as it could get.

Circe's home was HUGE. The entrance itself was bigger than Toothless, and the place was made entirely of solid marble. Large pillars of it held up the roof, giving him the feeling that he was in a place of worship. While his tribe wasn't the most religious people in the world, they still held sacrifices in the Mead hall for Odin.

'Sacrifice' meaning, (at least to his people) 'eat, drink, and be merry until you just couldn't do it anymore.' At least, that's how Gobber described it to him at the time.

"Well, here we are." Circe stated happily.

Hiccup was snapped out of his thoughts of Berk as he looked at her. The torch she had carried was about to go out, so he had to squint to see clearly. The moon was out, allowing him to see the building, but not enough to truly see the details.

"Man, it's dark. How do you see at night?" Hiccup asked, vaguely curious at how this woman slept comfortably in a place so big and dark. How could she even make her way around it?

Circe gave Hiccup a smirk before tossing the burning torch into the entrance of the building. The red-hot embers ignited a giant pot in the middle of the room, starting a giant fire. The fire's light was further expanded by the several other torches on the walls, all parallel to one another down several various hallways in the building.

Hiccup and Toothless stared in awe as the giant pot in the middle supplied the ignition for the other torches. The fire moved from torch to torch, until the place was alive with light. It reminded Hiccup of the giant fires made when the dragons used to raid at night.

Circe turned towards the duo, who were now gaping at the lit building with their jaws wide open, shocked at the almost magical way the fire had moved. She rolled her eyes once before calmly walking over to both, extending her arms underneath their chins and pushing them up. They continued to stare at it for a minute longer before looking at her.

Circe cleared her throat, snapping the two out of their amazed trance. "Alright then, while you two make yourselves comfortable, I'm going to set up some food for all of us." Circe walked up the stairs that led into the building, then paused.

"Oh, and one more thing: If you two happen to come across any of my pets...do not worry. They will not harm you. Unless of course...you give them reason to." She warned, a dark tone creeping in at the end.

Before Hiccup could question her any further, Circe turned right at one of the hallways towards where the kitchen was presumably, and disappeared without another word. Hiccup took in the sight of the building one more time before taking a breath and walking in, Toothless following him not long after.

However, as soon as they went in, neither the dragon nor the human noticed the several pairs of eyes watching them from within the darkness of the jungle.

If Hiccup had thought the outside of Circe's home was impressive, it had nothing with how it looked on the inside. The entire place was decorated with drapes, flowers, and, to Hiccup's surprise, various weaponry.

The walls were covered in many different types of swords, shields, and knives. In fact, it reminded Hiccup of the weapons he used to make back in the forge. However, here, there was enough weaponry to supply an army. Circe couldn't have made it all herself. She didn't even have any calluses or burns on her hands. That thought made Hiccup pause in confusion, only to topple over when Toothless bumped into him.

"Sorry Toothless. I'm just getting used to this place, that's all." Hiccup explained. Toothless nodded in understanding, but then perked up, eyes widening. He sniffed a few times, turning around back and forth, acting as though he was looking for something.

"Woah, hey! What's the matter now?" Hiccup asked, confused by the dragon's behavior. He barely had any time to speak before being lifted by the back of his shirt by Toothless.

"Toothless! What are you doing?!" The Viking exclaimed. Toothless ignored him, carrying the boy down the hallway in a hurried fashion. Hiccup opened his mouth to complain again...when a delicious smell entered his nose. His stomach rumbled, and all his thoughts became those of food.

As they came to the end of the hallway, both him and Toothless were treated to the sight of a long table decorated with various foods. The middle of the room was elevated slightly, giving Hiccup the feeling that he was in the presence of royalty. His mouth drooled at the sight of the dishes on the table.

Fresh cut apples, juicy mangoes, stacks of fresh bread...but what stood out most of all was the roast pig in the middle of the table, with an apple in its mouth. (At least for Hiccup. Toothless meanwhile, was drooling at the pile of fresh cod that sat right next to it.)

A chuckle came from behind them. They turned around to find Circe leaning against the doorway, arms folded across her chest, her lips pulled back into a delighted grin.

"Well, what are you waiting for? You're free to eat as much as you like." She proclaimed happily. Toothless nodded, anxious to get started. Hiccup however, gave Circe a look of confusion.

"Wait Toothless! Come back!" He called out to the dragon, whose snout had been inches away from the mountain of fish. Toothless groaned. He was hungry, but he didn't want to get his rider upset again. The dragon unwillingly trumped back to his rider's side, his stomach rumbling.

Circe creased her brow together in annoyance, but she made it back into a baffled expression before either of them could notice.

"What's the matter?" she asked. Hiccup looked at her suspiciously.

"How did you prepare the food that fast? I mean, that was quick. Too quick if you ask me." Hiccup pointed out. Toothless raised a brow at his rider's question, before his eyes widened at the realization that there was no way this woman could have possibly prepared the food that fast. She was only human, after all.

To their surprise, Circe actually seemed to blush in embarrassment. She turned her head to the side, a look of sadness becoming clear.

"I was hoping I would never have to admit this to anyone." Circe muttered. With a sigh, she turned back to Hiccup, who was still suspicious but also concerned about why she looked so miserable now.

"As you can see, I'm really the only one on this island." Circe said. "However, as stupid as it may sound, I always prepare this for when I might have a guest arrive here." She raised her right hand and gestured towards the food. Hiccup felt his stomach growling, but ignored it. Although, he was surprised that she would waste this much food just to greet guests that she didn't have. He didn't mention that out loud for fear of offending Circe.

"I do get the occasional visiter every once in a while," Circe continued. "but they often don't stay very long." She walked over to the table, grabbing an apple as she passed it. Raising it to her lips, she sniffed the fruit, enjoying the sweet aroma it had before taking a crunching bite. She took another look at the apple before shrugging and setting it down on the table. A loud rumble and groan was heard from Toothless.

"It is silly, isn't it? I mean, why don't I just leave if I want to meet other people, and not preparing and wasting my food in the hopes that each day might be the day someone will find my island?" She suggested with a roll of her eyes.

At this, she snapped her fingers, and leaned back on the table. Hiccup and Toothless watched at her intently, then their eyes looked at each other in confusion. They regarded one another for a few seconds, then turned back to Circe.

Unexpectedly, the wolf from earlier came trotted through one of the corridors. It went up to Circe, rubbing around the woman's white dress once before settling on its hind legs, panting up at her mistress happily. However, Hiccup couldn't help but notice that wolf's right eye was still blue. He remained silent, feeling that maybe he was just being paranoid.

Toothless, meanwhile, just glared at the canine, who paid no attention to the boy or the dragon.

Circe bent down, rubbing her hands through the wolf's fur. "But if I left, then what would become of my beloved pets?" She asked. "I adore them all, and I just can't bring myself to leave them here alone." She pushed to wolf down on its side, slowly running her hands down the canine's chest. The wolf stared blankly ahead, and Hiccup felt another sense of unease at how unnatural the blue eye felt.

"What other pets?" Hiccup asked. So far, the only pets he'd seen were the wolf and the deceased bear. And if she really 'adored them all' as she said she did, she certainly got over her pet bear's death quickly.

Circe gasped, rising to her feet and smacking a hand to her forehead. "Oh that's right. I haven't introduced you to them yet." Circe looked at the entrance.

"But I think that can wait. It is getting late after all." Circe walked down from the table, paused, then turned and patted her hip. The wolf sprang to its feet, following its mistress. Circe went back to the doorway she had leaned against earlier, with the wolf sitting and panting next to her.

"So those are my reasons Hiccup. As weird as they may seem, I hope you won't think any less of me."

Now if Hiccup wasn't starving at this point, he probably would have questioned Circe more. Her answer hadn't been clear, and the points she brought up really didn't have anything to do with his question in the first place.

However, with a glance at the succulent food, and another growl from his stomach (followed by an even louder growl from Toothless's own stomach) all the Viking boy did...was shrug.

"Huh, works for me." He answered with a smile. That said, both human and dragon raced each other to the food. Hiccup grabbed a fork and knife from the table and proceeded to cut away a large slab of meat from the neck of roast pig. Toothless, being the dragon he was, propped his body up on the table, eyeing the mountain of cod hungrily. The table creaked and groaned, but held the Night Fury's weight.

Circe watched as the two ate, Hiccup politely enjoying the taste of the meat while Toothless sent chunks of fish and blood flying everywhere with how fast he was gorging it. The two were so preoccupied with the food, none of them noticed the dark smirk Circe was giving behind them. She reached down to pet the wolf, who was simply staring blankly at the duo.

"You are a unique person Hiccup..." Circe whispered slyly to herself. At that moment, the plate of food Hiccup had been holding clattered noisily to the ground. The Viking fell to the floor, while the Night Fury's body landed with a crash across the table, making the food spread out all over the ground.

Circe walked over to the now unconscious human and dragon. She regarded them both for a moment before chuckling, bending down to grab the apple she'd taken a bite out of earlier. Taking another bite, she examined Hiccup's prone form, chewing contentedly before tossing the apple at the Viking's body. It bounced off the boy's back, but he did not stir. She smiled.

"...but you're also a gullible one, like the rest of my pets here."


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter 12: Chains, Revelations, and Realizations

"Uuuuuuugh..." Hiccup groaned, his eyes fluttering open. "What happened?"

The dazed Viking opened his eyes fully, only to find himself in a room that had no light whatsoever. His body felt like it was being held upright, and by the sound of clinking metal, he realized that both his hands and right foot were confined. His left foot though was without a prosthetic, leaving only his useless stump.

Hiccup began to panic. He struggled against what sounded like chains, but they were secured tightly on his limbs, his arms held up in the air. What was going on?! One minute he was helping himself to Circe's food and the next minute, a huge feeling of exhaustion had swept over him. After that, everything went black.

All of a sudden, light bathed over the room. Hiccup flinched from the light, but saw that there were torches on the walls of the room he was in. A large set of stone doors sat on the opposite end of room he was trapped in. He turned his head several directions, his heart racing and his breathing becoming more erratic as fear began to overwhelm him. He pulled at the chains again in a futile attempt to free himself, but only succeeded in stretching his arms to their breaking point.

Then, despite his desperation in this predicament, Hiccup's thoughts turned to his dragon friend.

"TOOTHLESS!" He looked around desperately for the Night Fury. From the looks of it, he was the only one in this barren room.

"TOOTHLESS PLEASE! WHERE ARE YOU?!"

At Hiccup's shout, the large doors to the room opened. He looked towards the entrance, hoping that maybe whoever was coming in could help him.

Thankfully, it was.

"CIRCE! Hiccup exclaimed in relieved gasps. The woman regarded Hiccup for a second, then turned around to close the doors. The Viking boy didn't see the smile on her face.

"Thank Odin you're here! Quick, help me out of these chains!" Hiccup rattled said chains for emphasis. He stared hopefully at the woman, who had now turned from the doors to face him once again.

Circe however, did nothing. In fact, she did not even attempt to help Hiccup down from the chains, simply leaning back against the door. Eyes half-lidded and arms folded across her chest, Hiccup felt as though she was angry at him for something.

"What's the matter? Help me!" He yanked against his restraints yet again. "Can't you see these chains?"

Then, to his shock, Circe gave him a tooth-filled mocking smile. She let out a giggle...which gave way to chuckling...before erupting into full-blown laughter. This continued for several minutes, with Circe literally in tears at how hard she was laughing. Hiccup could only stare at her in confusion.

As abruptly as it started though, it passed. Circe wiped away her tears, shook her head, then gave Hiccup an annoyed look.

"Of course I see them, you stupid male!" She yelled abruptly, making Hiccup jump in shock.

"I'm the one who put you in them." She admitted smugly.

At those words, Hiccup's mind whirled in confusion.

"You put...these chains...me...but why...what did..." Hiccup stuttered, still in a daze. He paused, taking a few deep breaths to compose himself in his growing panic.

"Why?" He finally asked, forcing himself to be calm in this situation. His father had always taught him to keep a cool head in case of sudden imprisonment.

However, for all those lessons in Viking culture his dad had taught him, Hiccup had never been taught how to handle sudden betrayal from a person he knew. And while he'd known Circe for only half a day, his first impressions of her were really good.

Circe's confession shattered those impressions though.

"Why, little boy? Well it's for one simple reason." She raised a finger up before pointing it at Hiccup. She walked forward, decreasing the distance between them until her finger poked his chest.

"You're a male." She stated in a tone that made it seem like it was the most important reason in the world. Circe remained there for a moment before she backed away from Hiccup, who was now gaping at her in disbelief.

Hiccup couldn't believe it. THAT was her reason for chaining him up like a prisoner?

"Wait, so you pretended to be nice to me, listened to my whole story on the beach, prepared all that food for Toothless and I, then knocked us out..." Hiccup listed off while his voice raised in anger. Circe simply smiled at him.

"And all of this...BECAUSE I'M A MALE!? He shouted. He desperately tried shaking himself from the chains once again. This lasted for several minutes, with the echoing sounds of the chains rattling being the only sound in the room. Hiccup eventually ceased, gasping in exhaustion and limping against his chains. His wrists and right ankle were red with pain from his futile effort. Despite this, he glared dangerously at Circe, who rolled her eyes and smirked, unfazed at Hiccup's reaction.

"Yes." she answered simply, amusement plain of her face. Hiccup looked at her as though she'd gone mad.

"What did you do to Toothless?!" He exclaimed, remembering the dragon. At this, Circe's smile dropped.

"That dragon of yours raised a fuss." She said, raising a hand to her cheek in exasperation. "I swear, I've never had that much trouble with an animal in all my years on this island."

Hiccup gasped and gave a look of horror. Circe, noticing this, chuckled a little while shaking her head.

"I didn't kill him if that's what your thinking." She said reassuringly. Ignoring Hiccup's relieved sigh, he looked back towards the large stone doors before snapping her fingers.

Hiccup watched as the doors slowly opened. He saw that both doors were being pushed by two large, fat black-haired creatures he'd never seen before.

"Gorillas." Circe explained smartly as she noticed Hiccup's baffled expression upon seeing them. "Really useful for moving heavy stuff around here."

Hiccup barely heard Circe, as his attention was now solely focused on the confined black dragon that was being wheeled into the room by two brown horses. The Night Fury struggled violently against the ropes, loud growls and snarling coming through the leather muzzle that was keeping him from producing his fire. The horses didn't seem to hear the growls, or if they did, didn't seem to care.

"Toothless!" Hiccup exclaimed. The Night Fury ceased in his struggles. The dragon looked around for the source of the familiar voice before his eyes settled on his chained rider. Upon seeing Hiccup, the dragon redoubled his efforts of trying to escape, while Circe chuckled evilly at the sight. She waved her hand at the gorillas, who nodded and closed the doors, standing guard at the entrance.

Hiccup watched with a broken heart as the dragon was led to the opposite end of the room. The dragon whined sadly at his rider as he dropped down to his stomach, exhausted from his attempts to break out from the tight constraints. It reminded Hiccup of when Toothless had been captured by his tribe in the arena.

The duo looked at each other worriedly while Circe untied the horses from the cart. She led them by their reins to the side of the room, where they stayed without her having to say any commands whatsoever (which Hiccup found odd.)

"Now that we're all together..." Circe said excitedly, causing Hiccup and Toothless to glare at her hatefully. Circe ignored them.

"...It's time for the fun to begin."

"FUN!?" Hiccup literally screamed at her. "YOU CALL BETRAYING OUR TRUST AND PUTTING US IN HERE FUN?!" Hiccup and Toothless strained against their chains and ropes respectively, both desperately wanting to get at this woman. After a while though, they both slumped down, tired from the previous exertions they'd been doing earlier.

Circe gave Hiccup a look of indignation, as if he was overreacting to his predicament.

"Of course not, you silly boy." She answered, her tone that of a mother scolding a child.

"That was the hard part of all of this. Do you have any idea how difficult it is to gain a young boy's trust? Grown men are so much easier: just offer them food, wine, and a woman's body, and they'll grovel to the floor like the pigs they are." She laughed, running a hand through her smooth, black pony-tailed hair.

"But you..." Circe walked over to Hiccup and grabbing him painfully by the chin. Hiccup shook his head to get the hand off his face, but her grip was surprisingly strong for a woman of her stature. Toothless growled deep within his throat, eyes narrowing into slits.

"You were almost too smart for your own good Hiccup." Her nails began to puncture his cheeks, making him grit his teeth to prevent himself from crying out in pain. She bent down to Hiccup's left ear.

"Almost." She whispered in a barely audible, but still mocking voice. With a grin and a jerk of her hand, she let him go. Hiccup moved his jaw to lessen the sting from her nails before glaring up at her angrily. Circe only chuckled, covering her mouth to prevent herself from bursting out laughing.

"I mean, really? You honestly believed my little sob story back there?" She giggled. "I don't have any intention of leaving this island at all. Why would I do that when I'm perfectly okay having fun with my pets here?"

Hiccup looked at the gorillas, who were still guarding the doors. However, his gaze fell to their eyes, which were glowing a bright blue color.

Just like Circe's.

"It was you." Hiccup whispered to himself in realization.

Circe ceased in her giggling and frowned at Hiccup. "I'm sorry, but I'm afraid I can't-"

"IT WAS YOU!" Hiccup shouted. "You were the one making that wolf and bear attack me! It wasn't their fault at all! You were controlling them somehow!"

For the first time since Circe had entered the room, she looked genuinely shocked. She stared at Hiccup for a minute, wide-eyed and gaping, before swiftly walking over and grabbing him painfully by his hair. Hiccup let out a cry of pain, while Toothless warbled in anger and shook violently in his restraints.

Circe gazed at Hiccup with a cold, albeit confused expression. And despite his pain, Hiccup noticed that there was a touch of fear in her eyes.

"How did you know that?!" She asked desperately, pulling his hair back forcefully. "How were you able to guess that power of mine? Are you a demigod? ANSWER ME!"

Hiccup, whose head was now aching from the hard tugs on his hair, answered quickly. He told her everything he had seen, from the change of color in the wolf's hazel eyes, to the bear's, and the of the horses and gorillas in the room. Circe listened intently, slowly letting up the force on his hair up the more he talked.

As soon as he was done, her expression had turned from scared to relieved. She clutched a hand to her heart, breathing heavily to compose herself. Hiccup groaned, his head throbbing. Abruptly, Circe's relief turned to anger.

*SMACK!*

If Hiccup hadn't been confined where he was, he probably would've been sent flying from the force of Circe's slap. His right cheek stung from where she had hit him, a hand-shaped red mark forming. He grit his teeth in pain, determined not to look weak in front of this woman. Toothless growled through his muzzle in anger.

With a huff, Circe turned away from Hiccup. She then went to one of the horses that had been standing and staring ahead unemotionally. Bringing its head down forcefully, the horse whinnied in pain. Circe disregarded its suffering, looking deeply into its eyes. Sure enough, a bright set of blue eyes stared right back at her.

"You're an observant little bastard aren't you?" Asked Circe rhetorically. Pushing away the horse's head, she walked back over to Hiccup, who was still wincing from the pain in his head and cheek. She bent down with her hands on her knees, while Hiccup limped in his chains from exhaustion.

"You really had me scared there for a minute. Typically, only the other children of gods can tell when a demigod had spread her will to others. I would be in serious trouble if you'd been one of them."

Circe smiled, reaching her arm out to pat Hiccup softly on the head. Hiccup flinched from the contact, but didn't attempt to protest. Toothless snarled at Circe, (or at least tried) but she took no notice.

"Fortunately for me, you are nothing more than a simple disposable mortal. The gods won't care enough about what happens to you, so I'm free to do whatever I want to you and your dragon."

Hiccup slowly looked up at her, hate filling every part of his gaze. Circe only grinned.

"In other words, you and that overgrown lizard are, now and for all time, my property." Circe laughed. Her laughter was cut short however, by the sensation of something wet, warm, and sticky hitting under her eye.

Hiccup had spat in her face.


	13. Chapter 13

Chapter 13: Potions and Limbs

The tension in the room was suffocating. Even Toothless had gone silent from the action Hiccup had done. The Viking was now smirking at Circe, who seemed to have gone into shock.

Circe had immediately stopped laughing the instant she felt a warm glob of liquid hit her on the underside of her left eye. She raised a hand to her face, wiping away the sticky saliva and observing it as though it was now the most interesting thing in the room. Her gaze transitioned back to Hiccup, who was still giving her a sly smirk.

Her blue eyes glowing with rage, Circe raised her right saliva-covered hand into the air. Hiccup flinched back and closed his eyes, expecting another hard slap to the face. In retrospect, it probably wasn't the best idea in the world to spit at someone who was holding you prisoner.

But boy, it was so worth it.

To his surprise, the contact he felt next wasn't that of a slap on his cheek. Rather, it was...comforting?

Hiccup opened his eyes, only to find that the same hand Circe had raised to backhand him with was rubbing down his cheek. Looking back up at Circe herself, the boy found that her smiling expression of kindness was even more scary to look at than the rage-filled one she had given him a second ago.

"There there," Circe cooed. "I know you aren't happy now, but you'll come to thank me someday about the new life I've planned for both you and your dragon."

At this, Circe reached into the breast part of her white dress. Hiccup turned away, determined to keep his decency despite the circumstances. Toothless watched as Circe pulled out a tiny glass bottle from her chest, filled with what seemed to be a light bluish liquid. She removed the stopper from the bottle with a loud *pop* while Hiccup took no notice of it.

Circe then grabbed Hiccup's chin roughly, making the boy cry out in pain as her sharp nails dug into his skin again. She took advantage of Hiccup's pain, and quickly poured most of the bottle's contents into the surprised Viking's mouth.

Hiccup's eyes widened. Circe's sudden grabbing of his chin hadn't really been that unexpected for him. But the sour liquid? Now that had been definitely unexpected. He tried spitting out the stuff, but Circe was now holding his mouth and nose shut, determined to make him swallow it. Hiccup shook his head back and forth to get her off, but eventually, his need for air outweighed everything else.

He unwillingly gulped down the liquid. After hearing the gulp, Circe let go of him, allowing him to gasp and heave from the lack of oxygen. All the while smiling at him evilly. Toothless warbled worriedly as Hiccup coughed and hacked in his throat, the sour liquid leaving a strong, unpleasant aftertaste.

"What *cough* was in that *cough* *cough* bottle?" Hiccup asked through his dry throat. Circe lifted the bottle for him to see. Toothless noticed that even though she had emptied the bottle's blue contents into Hiccup, it had mysteriously been refilled fully.

"Oh this?" Circe questioned mockingly, holding up the bottle for all to see. "This is what I give every male who crosses my island."

"What do you-AAAAAAAAAGGGH!" Hiccup yelled as his chest tightened painfully. He grit his teeth, hands clenching so hard that his fingers nearly cut into his own palms. Toothless shook violently in the ropes, eyes widening in concern for his rider. Hiccup whole body stiffened as a strange coldness swept over him.

Circe meanwhile, walked straight over to Toothless, ignoring Hiccup's yells of pain. She motioned for the gorillas to follow her, which they did silently and obediently. Toothless was too focused on his rider to notice any of this until he felt a huge pair of primitive hands clamp on his ears and tug. Hard.

As Toothless screeched from the pain on his poor ears, Circe quickly took off his muzzle and proceeded to pour the bottle into the Night Fury's mouth. She winced from the close-up screech, but managed to get it all in. Toothless had just realized the muzzle's absence, but before he could produce a fireball, the other gorilla swiftly used its strong arms to keep the dragon's mouth closed. After attempting to struggle out of the gorilla's hold in vain, Toothless felt the liquid going down his own throat.

Hiccup, who'd been watching his friend's ordeal, shivered. His lungs felt as though they were made of ice. However, his stump was beginning to feel like it was being pricked by red-hot needles. He clenched his eyes and yelled as his body spasmed with another bout of tightening pain.

Toothless moaned. The gorillas had finally let go of him, but his stomach was hurting so bad that he couldn't even bring himself to make a fireball to blast that human woman to bits. What was that blue stuff? The dragon closed his eyes and screeched as his single tail-fin began to feel like it was on fire, which was odd considering that he was used to such high temperatures.

Circe snapped her fingers. The two gorillas made their way back to the doors, grabbing them by the handles and grunting with effort as they opened them. Circe then proceeded to put a hand to her lips and whistle loudly, making the dragon and human flinched from the piercing sound.

Not long after, the grey wolf from earlier came trotting in, flanked by two brown-furred and relatively smaller wolves. The three canines went up to Circe, obediently sitting down as she raised a hand. Circe silently observed the duo, who were both moaning from the ice-cold sting within their bodies. The wolves meanwhile, simply watched unemotionally, eyes glowing blue. (Hiccup noted to himself that the wolf's left eye was still a hazel color.)

"What...errrrrrgh...is...Uuuuuuugh...that stuff you gave us doing? My leg stump feels like it's going to...GAH!...explode!" Hiccup managed to ask despite the cold cramps inflicting every part of his body. His stump, while no longer burning, was throbbing painfully, almost unbearably. Toothless felt his tail doing the same.

Circe looked over Hiccup briefly before her eyes settled on his stump. Her eyes then glanced to Toothless's broken tail.

"The potion I've given you two can't do it's job with an incomplete body." She explained. Another wave of pain hit Hiccup and Toothless, making them cry out once again. "It will recreate the missing parts in their proper place, before moving on to the rest of its job." She said this in a flat voice, as if saying it for the millionth time.

"Recreate...missing parts...what?" Hiccup was thoroughly confused with Circe's description. Circe rolled her eyes and smiled.

"What the Hel does that me-aaaaAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHGGGGGGG!" Hiccup screamed as his stump literally felt like it was imploding. However, his scream was drowned out by Toothless, whose screech was LOUD. It echoed across the entire room; and as there were no openings other than the closed doors, it only served to make the dragon's roar even LOUDER.

The horses reared up and whinnied in fear, while the gorillas pounded their chests, roaring in anger, provoked at the sudden noise. The wolves began barking and howling, splaying themselves on all fours and snarling at the dragon. Circe meanwhile, calmly covered her ears, keeping a blank look at the two as they pulled hard against their restraints, desperately trying anything to relieve the painful pressure on their stump and tail.

Then, as quickly as the pain had come, it vanished. The human and dragon inhaled sharply in relief, glad that their bodies had finally calmed down. Hiccup looked down at his stump to check if it was alright...

...only to inhale sharply at the sight of a healthy-looking left foot.


	14. Chapter 14

Chapter 14: Transformation

Hiccup gaped at his newly regrown left leg. He slowly wriggled his toes before lowering it down...and gasped at the gritty sensation of the stone floor. After several months of feeling nothing but numbness from his stump, that he could finally feel something with it was pretty jarring.

Toothless meanwhile, had turned his head around as much as the ropes would let him, to check on his tail. The dragon was just as shocked as his rider when he found that not only was his tail okay; there were now two healthy tail fins where there had been only one. He flapped them up and down, making sure that his sight was not deceiving him.

Dragon and human looked up at Circe, more confused than angry now. Why would this woman knock them out with poisoned food, tie them up like prisoners, then feed them something that restored their missing limbs? It just didn't make any sense...

Circe chuckled at their surprise. She raised her hands in a halting way, and the animals, which had still been shifting and growling uncomfortably from Toothless's earlier screech, instantly quieted.

"I know what you're both thinking," Circe admitted teasingly. "Why would a horrible woman like me heal your broken bodies?

She bent down to pet the wolves, who panted happily. "Well, it all comes down to appearances...for me at least."

Hiccup and Toothless creased their eyebrows. What did that mean?

Circe continued. "If I'm to keep up the image of a pure and beautiful woman whose been stranded all her life on this island, then having a couple of crippled pets would certainly mar that image, wouldn't it?"

Hiccup glowered angrily at that demeaning statement, forgetting all about his left leg. "We are NOT your pets." He stated rebelliously.

Circe smirked evilly. "When did I ever say it would be a choice?"

At that moment, both dragon and human felt a tingling building up in their bodies. To Hiccup, it felt like his body was getting goosebumps without even being cold. Toothless whined, his scales feeling very loose and itchy for some reason. Their bodies then spasmed violently with coldness.

The chains rattled, the ropes strained, and the two gasped and groaned as they felt their bones became as cold as ice...

...before shattering into a million pieces.

Circe waved her arm through the air majestically as the duos' eyes bulged at the highly painful, yet freezing cold sensation in their bodies. The chains holding Hiccup suddenly came unlocked, making the Viking collapse to the floor with a thump.

Toothless's ropes became limp as the strong knots somehow unraveled even though there was no one there to untie them. The Night Fury only had enough strength to get off the platform he had been tied to before collapsing to the floor in a heap. The dragon took one last pained look at his rider, letting out a whine of agony before passing out from his pain.

Hiccup did not notice his friend's whine as his body was paralyzed and numb with coldness, his bones feeling like they were made of broken glass. He laid on his stomach, too weak to do anything other than grovel at Circe's feet.

Then his hands began to ache. Using every last ounce of strength from his freezing body, the Viking lifted them up to see what was wrong, even though his arms felt like they were each weighed down with a thousand ton boulder. To his horror, the tips of his fingernails were becoming longer and thicker. The nails were extending right before his eyes, turning sharper and curved. His fingers seemed to inflate with air, becoming plumper, but also stubbier.

His palms, which had only been somewhat calloused from sixteen years of working in the forge, were now as hard as leather, and began to turn a dark, black color. Hiccup tried to clench his hands, but his fingers were now too stubby and short to even reach his palms.

Hiccup shot a horrified look at Circe.

"WHAT DID YOU DO ME!?" He screamed at the top of his lungs, holding up his deformed hands for her to see. Circe only smiled at him.

To make matters worse, the hairs on his arm stood on end. As Hiccup looked down to see this, he gaped and began hyperventilating as the hair began to grow across his skin. The light-brown hair completely covered everything on his arms except for the thick, leathery palms. His pinkie and ring finger had fused together, leaving him with only a total of four fat, stubby, and furry fingers on each hand.

Hiccup's panic rose, taking fast, shallow breaths as he stared down at his arms. They were now completely covered in brown fur, all the way up to his elbows. His hands now had four long, black, and pointed claws. He instinctively tried to rub it off, but only managed to prove to himself that this was indeed real when the brown fur wouldn't come off.

"I think you're coming along nicely, wouldn't you agree?" Circe asked in a voice brimming with smugness. She bent down to her knees, petting the wolves who continued watching blankly as Hiccup examined his arms.

Hiccup, who would've earlier attacked Circe the minute he had gotten free from the chains, instead gave her a fearful expression. He crawled away from her until his back hit the wall, taking quick, sporadic breaths to keep himself from having a full-blown panic attack. He began to sob quietly, looking down at his hairy freak appendages while tears shimmered and dripped at the corners of his eyes.

"Wh-Wh-What's happ-happening to me?" He managed to ask through his sobbing. He brought his knees up to his chest, putting his arms on the sides of his head while squinting his eyes shut, silently trying to convince himself that this was only a dream.

Circe calmly strolled towards Hiccup, the three wolves following obediently on either side of her. She ignored the unconscious form of Toothless, not even bothering to give the dragon a sideways glance. Instead, she focused solely on Hiccup, who attempted to back himself away further against the wall. In the end however, all he could do was gaze up at her with wet, red eyes in a pathetic fetal position.

She stooped down to his level, reaching out towards his arms to bring them down from his head. Hiccup instantly swatted her arms away in panic; only to be threatened with snarls and growls from the blue-eyed wolves. Circe only sighed and shook her head, looking down at the floor. She stood up from Hiccup, unmoved by the Viking's miserable state.

"You will make a handsome pet for me, Hiccup Haddock." She said with complete confidence. Her eyes broke contact with Hiccup's as she looked down at the rest of his body with the anticipation of a little girl expecting the best gift ever. The wolves calmed down, but still watched Hiccup intently even as the boy curled up in fear.

Hiccup felt his ears tickling. He brought his paws to them, but his sense of touch was muted by the thick pads and fur on his palms. Even then, his ears felt very numb and strained, as if someone was pulling hard on them.

"What grrrroooolllinnngggg aaaaaaaoooooonn.?" Hiccup clamped his paws over his mouth in shock. Did that just come from him!? His voice had come out deeper and more guttural than usual...

...almost like a growl.

Before he could do anything else, his face exploded with pain. It literally began to feel like it was attempting to tear itself off.

"Aaaaaaaauuuuuurrrrrrrgggghhh !" He yelled. He clenched his teeth to prevent his cry, determined not to give in to the discomfort. But this was so agonizing!

His throbbing ears picked up the sound of female laughter. He looked up at Circe, giving an angry glare at her as she laughed, crossing her arms and obviously taking pleasure in his torture.

The laughter itself was bad enough, but once Hiccup set his sights on the unconscious, unmoving form of his friend, it was the last straw.

Putting out all the sensations of pain in his head, Hiccup angrily leapt to his feet and jumped towards Circe, sharp claws extending from his transformed hands and reaching out for her exposed neck.


	15. Chapter 15

Chapter 15: Transformation Completed

**Author's Note: I apologize for the long wait to the fans of both this story and my most popular one New Life Ahead. I have a tendency to lose interest in what I'm doing after a while, then regain interest after some time has past.**

**I never knew that New Life Ahead would become so popular. It's gotten over 80 reviews (which I never reallly expected) and over 100 favorites and follows. I sincerely promise that I will get back to it at some point in the future. But for now, my current interest lies in this story.**

**Reviews are welcome and appreciated.**

* * *

Circe didn't even bat an eye when Hiccup leapt at her with his dangerous claws.

She also showed no concern when the boy was tackled by her pet wolves mid-leap. The yelp of surprise from Hiccup, the snarls of the wolves, and the subsequent yells of pain from when the canines' teeth sunk into the Vikings flesh were all superfluous to her.

Hiccup landed on his back with all three of the wolves on his body. The two brown wolves had comped down on his legs and were holding them to keep him from getting back up. The Viking kicked his legs to throw them off, but stiffened when the grey wolf on his chest snarled loudly, only centimeters from his face. The wolf bared its teeth, revealing the molars that could easily tear out his throat if he tried anything else.

Before Hiccup could say or do anything, the subdued pain on his face increased ten-fold. His deep cry of agony echoed over the entire room, making the horses, gorillas, and wolves cringe (and in the wolves' case, bite harder on Hiccup's legs and draw blood. The female wolf simply growled.)

Circe however, showed no reaction, instead savoring the sound of the boy's voice. She watched as he thrashed his body in every direction. She gave a small whistle to the canines, making them let go of the boy and trot over to her side obediently. She wanted a clear view of her newest pet.

Hiccup's nose flattened and became blacker. His mouth literally began to extend from his face, his teeth becoming sharper and slightly curved. His ears rounded and moved up slightly to the top of his head, while his brown hair grew shagged and a little longer.

The Vikings yells of pain became deeper and guttural, not sounding at all like Hiccup's voice. Circe smiled proudly when she realized what animal he was becoming. However, she did find it strange that his represent animal was something that looked completely opposite from what she'd seen and known of him...

...But who cared?

Hiccup's shirt tightened uncomfortably as his chest and arms began to swell and ripple with muscle, causing tears to appear at the edges of his shirt. Luckily for Hiccup the shirt gave away before it could cut into his skin, reduced to a pile of tatters on the floor. His exposed chest revealed not only the hard-toned muscle on it, but also that he had no longer had male aureola. The chest was now covered with a thick, brownish-tan layer of fur.

The Viking's arms began to reduce in length, his elbows becoming closer to his shoulders while narrowing down further to the sides of his changing body. The Viking turned over his stomach, his razor-sharp claws digging into the stone floor as he shook violently. His legs went through the same process as his arms, becoming thick with muscle while his two smallest toes fused together, leaving him with only four.

The Viking's hair had now grown exponentially, reaching down to his shoulders and over his chest. His pants now had a slight bulge in the back that was becoming steadily becoming larger. The creäture that was Hiccup looked down at his constricting shorts and swiftly used his claws to tear into them, relieving the pressure and releasing a long, brown tufted tail from his spine.

The unrecognizable Viking let out an Earth-shaking roar at the sight of his tail. Whether from the pain or the anguish at his current state of inhumanity was unknown to anyone. He curled up in shame and released a rumble of sadness, the tingling of fur spreading over the bottom half of his body.

Circe smirked at the pathetic-looking and utterly humiliated Viking. The potion had done most of its work...

...except for one little detail. She walked up the Viking, bending down on her knees and sitting calmly while the wolves sat side-by-side behind her. The grey wolf's eyes twitched slightly as it stared at Circe, but other than that, all three of them did nothing.

The creäture Hiccup had become took no notice of Circe sitting in front of him. Instead, it whimpered before gasping at the weird sensation in his deformed body. Thankfully, it wasn't painful, but damn, did it feel weird. A wicked laugh from the woman caught his attention and he looked up at the woman, who was still beaming at him like he was the greatest thing ever.

To his shock, Circe, along with the wolves, seemed to be growing taller right before his eyes. He attempted to back away, but with this strange body, he couldn't really move that easily. Every time he tried, his limbs felt like they were restrained to only go forwards and backwards.

Hiccup froze as he noticed that not only were Circe and her pets growing taller, but the room seemed to be increasing in scale.

Then it hit him...

The room and Circe weren't getting bigger. He was getting smaller! He could only stare up in horror at the mocking smile Circe was giving him, her face getting slightly further away every other second as his height decreased. Whatever pieces of clothing that had clung to Hiccup's fur-covered body fell off as his bulk became thinner and less bulkier. The Viking blushed in embarrassed at the fact that he was now practically naked in front of this woman, but the furry pelt covering his body seemed to do well enough to give some sense of privacy.

The weird sensation in Hiccup's body disappeared, and at the same time, he realized that he had stopped shrinking. Circe loomed over Hiccup, now huge in comparison. The Viking lowered his head in fear, hoping that she wouldn't crush him like she could so easily at the moment. After all, he barely reached up to her knee in terms of size.

He felt her hand touch his back, then loop under his stomach. He gasped as he was lifted by his underarms by Circe, who looked at him with a warm smile. Hiccup stared back at her as confusion, fear, and uncomfortableness ran through his head. His legs dangled limply in the air as she held him an arm's length away.

"Well, aren't you adorable?" Circe cooed, surprising Hiccup with the real sincerity in her voice. The was not a trace of coldness in the way she said it.

"I've always wanted a lion, but every single male I've had so far has almost always been some animal that's only been good for cooking so far." She said to Hiccup.

Hiccup's eyes widened in horror when she said that, and he struggled severely to free himself from her hold.

"Now. Now. Calm down my pet. It's no use trying to escape your fate here." Circe said, maintaining a strong grip that rendered his attempts to escape useless. She calmly waited for Hiccup to stop, which he inevitably did when he realized it was futile. He hung his head sadly, while clenching his eyes shut tightly in a desperate bid to wake himself up from this nightmare.

Circe completely ignored Hiccup's reaction at the situation. The only thing that really mattered now was to make sure that this kid was under her control.

It was time for the test.

"I must say however, that I wasn't expecting a lion to be your represent animal." She admitted. Whether Hiccup heard her or not was unknown, as he simply continued to hang hopelessly in her arms. He looked quite miserable at the moment.

"From your looks, I thought it would be something like a donkey, or at the very least, a simple dog. After all, you may be unique, but you're also pathetic in many ways." Circe said casually.

Hiccup's eyes shot open as rage overtook his misery. Him?! Pathetic?! HOW DARE SHE!

Hiccup started thrashing wildly in her arms again. Only this time, the claws on both his front and hind paws exposed themselves and slashed through the air with every intent to claw her face off.

"Stop."

Hiccup body froze unwillingly the minute he heard Circe's voice. Only she hadn't actually moved her mouth. He tried to move, but it was like his entire being no longer worked, paralyzed with coldness.

"Lick my face like any good pet should." Came her voice again. It reverberated through his head, (again, no mouth movement from Circe) and to his surprise, he began to stick his tongue out and reach his head towards Circe, who brought his body closer to her face.

To Hiccup's utter humiliation, his tongue licked at Circe's left cheek. He tried to stop himself, but it was like his body was unable to do anything other than follow what Circe had told him to do. His dry, sandpapered tongue made Circe giggle, while Hiccup fumed within. Even after she'd brought his body away from her, he still continued to extend his tongue out against his will.

"Enough."

Hiccup's tongue stopped flicking out at her command, but he was terrified of the fact that Circe was controlling his actions. He shivered with fear as she grinned towards him.

"You are now complete Hiccup. I'm sure you'll make a great addition to my collection." Hiccup huffed in disgust, but did nothing else.

Circe turned around towards the wolves, who had waited patiently. Hiccup immediately began squirming as she lowered him down towards them. The wolves regarded the lion cub in their mistress's arms with passive acceptance, sniffing at him all around his body, and making Hiccup shake and close his eyes as they lightly licked his face, their slobbery tongues running across his fur. (Despite the circumstances, Hiccup couldn't help but squeal a little at the feeling.)

"Take him to my room. He's not used to his body yet." Circe commanded. The wolves stopped their licking and bowed lowly towards their mistress before the grey wolf walked forward and opened her mouth. Circe turned the surprised Hiccup around and allowed the wolf to grab the loose scruff of his neck. Hiccup jumped at the uncomfortable feeling of his skin being pulled tight as he hung from the canine's jaws, but other than that, it wasn't really painful. For some reason, being carried this way was kind of relaxing to this body.

"I'll be with you soon my little cub." Circe said sweetly, bending down to Hiccup's level and stroking behind his round lion ears. The Viking shook his head away and snapped at her fingers, barely grazing them. Circe helped in pain, staring at her hand before looking back at him, chuckling darkly.

"I see someone's gotten a taste for fresh meat, haven't they?" She stated, addressing the slight cut on her hand. Hiccup smirked a little, baring his small, sharp teeth.

Circe looked back at him with half-lidded eyes, the blue irises glowing slightly. "Don't worry Hiccup. I'm sure there will be plenty of human meat for you to gorge yourself on. At least when I'm done with them." Circe laughed.

Hiccup's expression became horrified.

"By the way, that roasted pork was delicious, huh?" Circe asked rhetorically, smiling while standing up and holding her bloody finger. Wiping it across her mouth, the injury itself seemed to vanish into nothingness.

Hiccup thought about her words for a minute before his eyes widened in realization. At that moment, the lion cub's eyes rolled to the back of his head before his whole body went limp in the wolf's maw.

Circe smiled as the wolf carried away the unconscious Viking. The rest of the animals left with the wolf, the gorillas closing the doors behind them.

Circe spread her arms up as she yawned, tired from her exertions today. It was past midnight and this boy and his dragon had been-

Wait.

"RRRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAOOOOOOWWWWW WWWLLLLLL!"


	16. Chapter 16

Chapter 16: The Result

Circe whirled around towards the source of growl and barely had enough time to dodge the black blur coming towards her. She threw herself to the side roughly, making her grunt as her body scraped across the floor. Heart beating fast, she went on her back and looked towards where the creäture had landed after its failed tackling.

The black creäture landed perfectly on all fours before turning back to Circe. It's countenance was one of complete rage, and its fangs were bared wide with a clear intent of murder. It gazed back at the witch with slitted green eyes.

A full-grown and dangerous panther was what it was.

Circe quickly looked back at where the Viking's dragon had fallen unconscious.

It wasn't there.

Circe's head turned back and forth between the growling panther and the empty spot before putting two and two together. The realization made her smirk.

"So my potion didn't kill you after all, did it Toothless?" Circe directed to the creäture she now knew was the boy's friend. The black panther roared again, making the dirt at its feet shake slightly before sprinting towards the witch.

Circe smiled. She raised up her hand and directed her palm at the feline. Just before Toothless could bite into her fingers...

"Stop." she said calmly.

The transformed Night Fury felt a cold, tingling sensation spasm through his body, so intense that he tripped over his own feet and fell to the floor, skidding a few feet before stopping inches from Circe's feet. He tried to move himself, but his body felt as if it was disconnected from his head. His growls of anger stilled showed though.

Circe chuckled. She got to her feet, dusting the dirt off her dress while hissing from the sting in her arms. They'd been cut when she had dodged the panther that was Toothless. Her chuckling stopped when she saw this and her face became a scowl directed at the paralyzed former dragon.

"You little... Do you know what I go through to keep myself beautiful!? I'm sensitive!" She exclaimed loudly, standing over the panther and showing her grazed arms for him to see.

The feline stopped growling and instead gave her a look that she swore was one of smug self-satisfaction. At that, the witch lifted her foot and brought it down hard on the panther's stomach, making the mammal groan in pain.

"I had expected my concoction to bring about your death." She explained, pushing down hard on the panther's chest with her bare foot, making the feline growl and groan once again in pain.

"I had never given my potion to genuine animal before. I figured you would at least give me an experiment to work with, so I'm grateful to you for that." Circe took her foot off the panthers chest, allowing air to rush back into the gasping cat's lungs.

"Although, now that I think about it, you were a creation of Hel, so I still have no idea what it would do to an actual mammal." Circe brought her hand to her chin contemplatively for a minute before shrugging.

"I guess I'll try it out some other time, but for now..." Circe lowered her eyes dangerously at the panther, who cowed somewhat the sight of the glowing blue eyes of the witch.

"Get up and sit." Circe commanded harshly. Toothless felt another wave of cold numbness run through him while his body lifted itself to all fours against his will. The dragon attempted to stop himself, but his body was moving like it had a mind of its own. All he could do was growl as he unwillingly sat on his rump before Circe, who stood with her arms across her chest and glaring at Toothless with a look of annoyance.

Today really hadn't been a good day for the Night Fury. First, the almost drowning, then the encounter with the wolf, then the failed attempt at flying which resulted in him and his rider almost drowning AGAIN, then the wolf attack where Hiccup had forcibly put him to sleep for no good reason, then getting poisoned by the human woman (how could he have resisted? It was Cod!), then waking up in ropes only to find his rider in the same place of helplessness, then being forced to drink a blue, foul-tasting liquid that made his body hurt so much that it knocked him out...

...only to wake up and find that his body was no longer his own. The Night Fury was surprised at this when he woke up, but the sound of Circe's mocking voice had wiped all those worries from his mind. He had gotten up just as the doors were being closed by those two black-furred smelly things (Gorillas she had called them?) and the witch had been the only one in the room besides himself. Whatever had happened to him hadn't mattered at the moment except to see her blood splattered across the room.

From her neck.

Now here he was, unable to move himself from this obedient place and having absolutely no clue where his rider had gone.

So overall, this was one REALLY bad day.

Circe meanwhile, was glaring down at panther. She was angry that the Night Fury had very nearly got her and she really wanted a suitable punishment for him. But what? Killing him would be a waste of a healthy, intimidating animal and the dragon had proved to be adept at using his new feline body.

Wasn't much of a surprise to her really. She always theorized that animals could be more adaptable to body change than humans. Humans were more used to applying intelligence to their actions while animals focused mostly on instinct. Men who had come to her island for example, would find it extremely difficult to get control of their new bodies once they had finished transforming. It would take several days for them to get used to the change even with the natural instincts that slowly crept into their minds.

However, since animals focused mostly their natural instincts than real thoughts, they could probably get used to it faster. In her view, transform a dog into a cat and, within several hours, it would most likely accept its new form with no problem. Toothless certainly didn't. He was functioning well despite the fact that he'd been a panther for what she guessed was a few minutes.

Circe was snapped out of her thoughts by Toothless's snarl. She shook her head. Experimentation with her potion could wait. Right now she needed to decide what to do with another feline in her home.

"Wait!" Circe exclaimed to herself, remembering something. The panther stopped growling and looked at Circe with bewilderment.

Circe meanwhile, had just realized that the creäture in front of her was a feline. And so was her pet lion cub.

A smile formed across the witch's face before she burst out laughing, her laughter echoing across the room.

Toothless lowered his head and flicked his long, black tail. This wasn't good. Not at all.

* * *

"This is bad." Hiccup thought, taking in his surroundings.

While Circe was busy with Toothless, the grey wolf carrying Hiccup by the scruff had separated from the other animals and navigated through the witch's home until she came across another two-door entrance. Only instead of doors, a simple white pair of drapes rather than stone obscured what was inside.

Hiccup struggled to free himself again, but the wolf's jaws had a tight hold on his brown-furred skin. It felt weird to have skin this loose, but it wasn't painful thankfully.

The wolf went through the drapes with Hiccup, who stopped struggling when he realized he wasn't getting anywhere, and he took the time to take in the beauty of the room lit by the torches hanging from the walls.

There was a comfortable bed on the opposite end of the room, with red bed sheets for blankets and plumb black pillows. And on its left side was a table with what looked like makeup. While Berk never really used makeup, Hiccup did know that other people would use the stuff to make them look prettier, which was kind of vain in his opinion.

Other than that, there was only a small wooden chair under the makeup table and a mirror.

"Most likely to check her vanity." Hiccup thought bitterly, his tail twitching in response to his emotions.

The wolf ignored its surroundings (most likely having been here before) and carried Hiccup to the right side of the bed. The wolf dropped him down on them and walked off before Hiccup could do anything else. Hiccup sighed sadly ad eyes fell to a small pile of blankets.

"That's where I'm sleeping? Like Hel if she thinks I'm staying here! I'm getting out first chance I get!" Hiccup thought to himself.

Then his face fell when he realized there was nowhere for him to go. This place was surrounded by thick forests that was probably easy to get lost in and more than likely had animals bigger than himself. And even if he could get through it, this place was an island, surrounded by miles of ocean. Berk had no idea where he was and Toothless-

Hiccup's body stiffened. His green eyes widened briefly before glistening with tears. Overwhelmed with emotion for the supposed loss of his friend, the lion cub that was Hiccup settled down on the blanket and curled upon himself. Slight whimpers escaped his throat as he cried, the image of his unmoving friend haunting his thoughts.

The young lion never noticed the shadow crossing over his form when he fell asleep.


	17. Chapter 17

Chapter 17: Men's opinion

**Author's Notes: Just so everyone knows, I'm not trying to bash men or women in this fic. All I'm doing is trying to have fun and create something entertaining.**

* * *

Hiccup slowly opened his eyes, squinting from the sunlight coming through the opening at the side of the room. It looked like a regular sunny day, so he and Toothless could get some sunshine with a few flights over Berk and...

...oh right. The Viking looked down at himself wearily, then sighed as he saw a brown-furred body of a small lion cub.

"Guess it wasn't a dream after all." Hiccup thought glumly.

"Good morning my little cub." Said an irritatingly cheerful voice. Hiccup looked to his left side, glaring at the witch who stretched her arms and groaned, her body wrapped a red blanket. She sighed as she brought her arms down, then brushed her flat, black hair out of the way.

"Did you have a good sleep, my pet?" Circe asked with an obviously rhetorical tone, smiling as she faced away from Hiccup towards the other side of the bed.

The cub that was Hiccup gave a little growl in response. He walked off the set of blankets that he'd slept on and crouched in a defensive position.

"Of course you did. Why do I even need to ask?" Laughed Circe, still not even looking at Hiccup. Hiccup growled more, baring his tiny, but deadly fangs.

"Enough."

The command reverberated through Hiccup's mind unexpectedly. The Viking had no time to react before his body took in a mind of its own. His growling ceased, the tensed muscles relaxed, and his feline body sat obediently on its haunches against his will. In short, he was now an attentive, calm lion on the outside while remaining a fuming, angry teenager on the inside.

Circe got up from the bed and took off the blanket wrapped around her body. Hiccup's anger evaporated instantly, instead giving way to awkward embarrassment when he saw that she was standing there in all her glory. Or in simpler terms, completely nude.

Hiccup turned his head away, clenching his eyes tight and trying hard to resist looking at Circe's exposed form.

Circe, who noticed her pet's strange behavior, huffed indignantly, not even bothering to cover herself. She walked around the edge of the bed, until she was standing in front of the cub who was still looking away from her.

"Oh, come on! It's like you've never, ever wanted to see a naked woman before." She scolded playfully, hands on her bare hips. The cub shook his head, blushing furiously.

Circe sighed, turning around and walking to her dresser. "Great, the one unique boy in this island and he's more scared of women than he is of dragons." She grumbled silently to herself. She reached into one of the drawers of the table, pulling out a golden-yellow dress and a pink dress before looking into the mirror. Circe alternated between each dress before sighing again.

Circe frowned, then looked at the cub in the mirror, who had not moved or opened his eyes yet. A smile formed across her face.

"Oh, Hiccup. Can you help me?" Circe said sweetly, voice dripping with mirth. The cub in question shook his head and proceeded to clench his eyes even tighter.

"Which do you prefer, the pink one or the yellow one?" Again, no response from the cub other than a shake of the head. Circe's smile lowered a little at this. Turning away from the mirror, she fixed her now glowing blue eyes on the cub.

"Hiccup...please look at me." Circe asked calmly. The cub shook his head again.

Circe's smile dropped. Her perfect nails dug into the fabric of the dress, nearly cutting into her palms.

"Look at me." Circe commanded through clenched teeth. Hiccup felt a cold shiver run through his body, but ignored it. He was determined not to-

"LOOK AT ME!" Circe screamed furiously, her voice echoing across the room and through the hallways of the marble home. The witch threw her dresses onto the floor, running forward with her hair trailing behind her as if caught in a hurricane. She bent down to her knees and grabbed the cub by the throat, making the little lion choke at the unexpected assault and eyes bulging from the sudden lack of air. His green eyes abruptly turned the same glowing blue as Circe's, who was staring back at him with an expression more threatening than the sight of the Red Death. Her nudity no longer mattered to him with how angry she looked.

"Listen to me you little fur-ball." Circe stated furiously, jabbing a sharp index finger into the Vikings stomach and making him wince and gasp in pain.

"I don't care that you feel sad about your new life. I don't care that you are miserable at the loss of your humanity. And I REALLY don't care about whether you miss your dragon friend or not." Circe's nails dug into Hiccup's neck, making the cub release a strained yowl in pain. He flailed wildly in her grip, but one glance rendered him limp and helpless.

"But when I tell you to do something, You... Do... It." Each word was punctuated by Circe tightening her grip on the cubs neck, making the Viking's face turn blue.

Just before Hiccup felt he would pass out from lack of air, Circe abruptly let him go. The cub gasped hard and fast to get fresh oxygen into his lungs. His eyes went back to their original green color and his tail thrashed wildly in panic.

Circe stood up, crossing her arms across her average-sized chest. Her furious gaze suddenly became calm and composed, almost as if what just happened didn't happen.

"So do we understand one another now, my pet?" She asked in that smug voice of hers, smiling evilly. Hiccup looked up at her in fear, terrified of how close to death he had come.

But then the memories of his friend Toothless popped into his head. Hiccup realized that if he was going to spend the rest of his life as a pet, then he'd rather be dead and with his friend than spend another moment with her.

With determination set in his mind, the Viking looked up at Circe, glowering furiously with jade-green slits and shaking his head at the witch.

Needless to say, Circe was dumbstruck. Did this boy have a death wish? Most of her 'guests' for lack of a better word, almost always submitted to her demands. Once they saw that they were helpless in her grasp, they would usually just choose the option that would allow them to live. (Unless she or some other predator killed them of course.)

Circe glared down at Hiccup, who in turn returned her glare just as fiercely. The sorceress knew that if worst came to worst, then she could always just put Hiccup under her control and MAKE him like her. If only in body and not in soul.

The problem though, was that even a demigod had limits with their abilities. She could control every animal simultaneously if she wanted, but the effort alone would drain her body and mind of energy. And while one little cub was certainly no problem for her, it would eventually get to her.

But then again, that left the problem of possible suicide from Hiccup himself. She couldn't watch him all day to see if he would kill himself or something, she had other things to do that were so much more important. (Not that any of her 'guests' knew that; they still thought that demigod instantly meant she was omniscient, which she wasn't.)

However, non-fatal injuries, such as the sprained or broken paw from her special wolf yesterday, would be healed after a little while. That way, it ensured that her 'guests' looked their best rather than like an actual group of wild animals.

Both lion and witch continued to glare at each other for a moment before Circe shivered from the morning breeze. Seeing that she was still nude, Circe gave Hiccup one last glare before picking up her pink dress.

Hiccup's gaze remained fierce throughout the entire ordeal, even after Circe had turned back to her mirror to put on the dress (which was kind of ugly in his opinion. He would've preferred the yellow one.) He no longer felt embarrassed about her nakedness, instead focusing only on the rage simmering within him.

"So that's how it's going to be, huh?" Circe asked, addressing Hiccup through the mirror as she put the finishing touches to her face with makeup. She was equally angry with the Viking for being rebellious, but Hiccup could have cared less about that. The lion cub splayed himself and growled dangerously, trying his best to look intimidating.

"Don't take that tone with me, boy!" Circe exclaimed as she whirled around and stomped toward the cub. Hiccup yelped a little as she bent down suddenly and grabbed him by his scruff, lifting him off the floor and inches away from her face.

"I was willing to be nice to you today, but your attitude is making that impossible!" Circe yelled in Hiccup's sensitive ears. "You will learn your place here! And I will...not...tolerate...

Circe broke off as she felt a warm liquid running down her chest, along with the sound of water hitting the floor. She slowly looked down at her dress, ignoring Hiccup's horrified and embarrassed expression. She noticed a dark stain running all the way down from her chest to the floor, where a small puddle of water had accumulated. There was a foul, tangy stench in the air when she breathed.

The shocked sorceress unexpectedly dropped Hiccup, who landed safely on all fours and proceeded to stumble out of the room as best he could, still not used to navigating with this body. The little brown lion cub passed through the white drapes and disappeared, hoping that he would be far enough away from Circe to avoid her wrath.

The witch meanwhile, shook where she stood, a look of rage crossing over her features. She turned to the entrance, hair flying over her face as she grit her teeth.

Then abruptly, her anger gave way to a smug calmness, her lips creating a wide smile. Circe let out a chuckle and tossed her hair out of the way as she raised her arm up...

...and snapped her fingers.


	18. Chapter 18

Chapter 18: Practice and Punishment

Hiccup tripped over his paws, stumbling for a minute and falling to the ground. He grunted in frustration, tired that this body only allowed him to move his arms and hind legs forward or backward. It was like something had tied ropes to each of his limbs, and each of those ropes was pulling in the opposite direction to one another.

He observed his surroundings, seeing that he was the only one in the long corridor. It was eerily silent and creepy, with the only source of light coming from the exit that was at least 20 feet away. The Viking had no idea where he would go when he got there, but anything was better than staying here with a crazy witch. Especially after peeing on her when his fear got the better of him.

With determination set in his features, Hiccup slowly put one paw forward, his back leg following his foreleg. He paused for a second before putting his other paw and leg forward. He practiced this for a few yards and then sighed in relief as the movement became less stiff.

Hiccup's brow creased. "Wonder what's taking her so long?" He thought. At the pace he was going, Circe should have caught up to him by now. It had already been a while since he had left the room, and he had expected her to come around from her surprise sooner than this.

A loud bark suddenly sounded in his ears. Hiccup turned his head toward the exit he'd been heading to. To his surprise, the grey wolf from last night was there, looking very frantic and desperate as she moved back and forth in front of the entrance. The Viking cub was confused, but then saw that the wolf was making gestures that indicated it wanted him to come over.

The wolf's ears perked suddenly, her hazel eyes widening and looking away to the right at something Hiccup couldn't see. She lowered her ears and whined, gave one last glance to Hiccup (was that pity?) and ran off, disappearing into the thick brush of trees.

Now Hiccup was extremely confused. What happened? First it shows concern for him, then it leaves? What scared it off?

His question was answered when a large, black thing went in front of the exit. Hiccup stiffened. While he couldn't tell what it was, the blue, glowing eyes and the large, meat-rending teeth it was showing told him everything he needed to know.

Acting purely on instinct, Hiccup whirled in the opposite direction...

...only for his muzzle to bump into a yellow cloth.

Hiccup slowly gazed up to the smug face of Circe, who had her arms crossed and stood imposingly. Hiccup began to back away in shock, but had not taken two steps before her foot connected hard to his stomach.

The lion cub let out a sound between a yelp and a yowl as pain shot through his body. He went skidding across the floor for a few feet, but he barely had time to catch his breath from the impact before Circe ran up and kicked him again, her expression now one of clenched-teeth anger. Her blue eyes glowed and she grinned sadistically as her bare foot hit the cub's stomach, making the Viking release a high-pitched howl of pain when he smacked into the wall.

"I tried to be nice Hiccup," Circe said as she calmly approached the whimpering cub. "and yet you seem to view me as nothing more than a chamberpot."

Circe extended her foot over Hiccup's tufted tail.

"THAT IS UNACCEPTABLE!" She screamed, bringing her foot down hard on the appendage. A resounding CRACK! echoed in Circe's ears, while waves of agony passed through Hiccup's feline body and caused him to roar pitifully in pain. The cub then screeched and howled as Circe proceeded to put all her body weight on the tail, increasing the pain ten-fold.

"Let's get one thing clear here boy!" Circe yelled, wincing slightly as the cubs hind claws scratched at her leg. She ignored it however, wanting to get her point across. The black panther walked forward, blue eyes looking on without any emotion whatsoever.

"I AM THE MISTRESS! And you are my pet, my plaything, MY SLAVE!" With each name sounded, Circe brought her foot down repeatedly on the little lion, who was now shaking with fear, but mostly in pain, letting out a yelp with each kick. Blood leaked from Hiccup's nose and mouth, staining his muzzle and fur as Circe continued her assault.

The panther shook a little as it watched the witch attack the lion, eyes turning green for an instant before going back to blue.

The assault continued for only a little while, but for Hiccup, it seemed like an eternity before Circe finally stopped, anger spent and breathing heavily from exhaustion. The witch backed up from the bloody, mutilated, and barely conscious cub until she slumped against the wall and slid to the floor. She took a few more deep breaths before lifting her head from her knees.

"Remember Hiccup," Circe said, staring down at Hiccup's prone form with no sympathy present in her features. "You brought this on yourself."

She turned to the panther, ignoring the barely audible whimpers coming from the blood-stained form in front on her.

"Get him out of my sight. I don't want to see him again until he's ready to accept his new role." She growled, her eyes flashing blue,.

The panther nodded stiffly, heading over to the prone form and stepping over the blood. It opened its jaw and wrapped it around Hiccup's torso, making the lion cub whimper from the pressure on his throbbing chest. It gingerly picked up the Viking, then turned tail and walked away, vanishing into the lush trees of the forests.

Circe sighed, wincing slightly as she pulled up her dress to check her left foot. She inhaled sharply when she saw that her delicate leg was covered in claws marks and blood from both Hiccup and her.

"That stupid male!" She whispered harshly to herself. "He's lucky I didn't just kill him for his disobedience."

Circe leaned her head back, breathing hard through he nose before smirking a little.

"Still, I wish I could see the look on his face when he realizes his friend stood by and watched the whole thing." She giggled. "That outta brake his spirit."

Circe let out a chuckle, never noticing the angry pair of hazel eyes watching her through the brush in the woods.


	19. Chapter 19

Chapter 19: Heal

**Author's Note: Sorry for the incredibly long wait. Just haven't been given enough free time to write lately. Just finished this.**

**P.S. Has anyone else heard about Dreamwork's future animated horror film called 'Alma'? I heard that the film will be made by Guillermo Del Toro and is based off a scary 6-minute short film of the same name, which also earned several awards at the film festival. You can find it on Youtube, but I warn you, its pretty scary. No blood or anything, but it is horrifying. Tell me what you guys think.**

* * *

Toothless was pissed.

In all of his years as a dragon, the Night Fury had never been as angry as he was now. If he could just have control of his body, he'd...he'd...

...continue to carry the limp form of who he now knew was his rider. The panther sagged inwardly, looking down at the small, bloody lion cub that had fallen unconscious from his wounds. His body was walking by itself to who-knows-where, and the involuntary movement had taken its toll on Hiccup's body from the fast, jerking pace it was doing.

The black panther had been asleep this morning in the room Circe had assigned to him. After the witch had stopped her laughing last night, she had put Toothless back under her control and made him walk with her to an empty room. She had then warned Toothless that if he left the room or tried to harm her in any way while she slept, Hiccup would pay the price for his insolence. The dragon was shocked, but also relieved that from what she said, his rider was still alive at least. With that, Toothless had fallen into an uncomfortable sleep, plagued by nightmares of his rider mutilated and hanging from chains...in portions.

He had been snapped out of the nightmare thankfully (or unfortunately) by a sudden wave of coldness across his black-furred body. The panther had unwillingly gotten to his feet, along with hearing some commands from the witch in his head.

"Find the lion cub! He'll be headed for the entrance and I need you to get there before he does!" He had heard.

Circe had come into the room, smelling somewhat foul and wearing a wrinkled, yet beautiful yellow dress. It seemed that she was in a hurry to do something.

Taking a deep breath to calm herself, the witch had bent down towards Toothless in the same way a teacher would to a student.

"Look down through all the exits until you find a little animal called a lion. You'll recognize him by his tufted tail and brown coat of fur when you see him. Just block him from escaping, but don't hurt him!" Circe added, before smiling with lips that had that red paint smeared a little at the edges of her mouth.

"I want that privilege to be for me only. I need him to know that even without my power, he still can't escape me." Circe said before she had walked out of the room.

Toothless, while having been following Circe's directions, felt sorry for whoever had invoked the wrath of the witch. Whoever had the courage to stand up to this woman was either very brave or very stupid. So it was kind of surprising to realize that Hiccup was this small, brown animal. The color matched the hair on his rider's head perfectly.

Toothless was snapped put of his thoughts by another wave of coldness that flashed through his body.

_"You've been very good at following orders so far Toothless,"_ Came Circe's irritatingly smug voice. _"So I'll let you go for now. Spend some time with that male fool and see if you can't change his mind. Pretty please?"_ she asked mockingly.

The voice disappeared before the dragon could do anything, but he did feel some warmth as his body was released from her control. The dragon slowed himself down to make sure he wasn't hurting Hiccup before setting the cub down on a large patch of grass.

The panther stared down at the bloody form, a forlorn expression on his face. The large feline whined a bit, lowering his head down to the cub and licking his cheek. The little lion moaned a little in his sleep, but otherwise, did not respond to the touch. Toothless pulled back and sat down, watching over his rider as he slept.

Then, to the former dragon's shock, the young lion's injuries began to fade before his eyes. The dark brown bruises became the original light color it had been. The blood somehow evaporated into nothingness, and the tail (which had been bent at an awkward angle due to Circe's stomping) stiffened back to normal with a resounding *crack.*

Toothless watched in fascination as the damage done by Circe literally erased themselves from existence. The cub began to breathe a lot more easily than before as his aching lungs suddenly became less painful to use.

The panther named Toothless gave a small, smile when his rider twitched his tail and shifted in his sleep. He looked so cute just now, with his paws splayed out while lying on his side. The black feline went over and licked his rider's fur-covered cheek.

A little purr escaped the cub's throat, finding the dry tongue to be very ticklish. The panther found the feel of fur on his tongue weird but also enjoyable in a sense. The former dragon pulled back momentarily before putting his body around the Viking and laying down protectively over him. Giving the lion one last lick on the forehead, Toothless then laid his head down in the grass and joined his rider with a nap.

While this happened, neither the sleeping cub or the panther noticed a large black raven staring down at them, its dark eyes watching them with a swirling mist present within its pupil.


	20. Chapter 20

Chapter 20: Past Trust

In the middle of the forest clearing where a panther and brown lion cub slept, the brown cub opened his eyes and rubbed at them with a paw. The cub opened his mouth wide and yawned from his nap, before turning over and resting again.

Only to shoot his eyes open instantly when all the memories of that morning came back to him.

Hiccup shot to his feet, frantically glancing everywhere to get a baring on his surroundings. Circe was nowhere to be seen in all this lush forest. While he was confused about how he had come here, he was glad that the witch was not here. She had probably left after the beating she had given him.

"Wait a minute..." Hiccup thought to himself, realizing that his body was no longer in pain. In fact, it was like Circe had never even laid a hand (or foot) on him. His lion body was completely devoid of any bruises or blood as he checked himself, and the only thing here besides him was the grass, trees, and that black animal who had blocked the exit when he was running away from Circe.

Hiccup looked up from his body, staring straight ahead as he repeated the last thought in his head. He slowly turned around to face the sleeping figure, dread pouring over him when he realized that it was indeed there.

"I better get out of here before it wakes up." Hiccup thought to himself, backing up inch by inch to avoid making a sound.

*SNAP*

The Viking stiffened, quickly putting his head between his forelegs and seeing the snapped twig that just happened to be under his body.

A loud huff caught the cub's attention. With quivering trepidation, Hiccup lifted his head from his legs and stared into the green eyes of the black animal, which stared back at him with wide eyes. Hiccup gave a small smile before whirling in the opposite direction and sprinting.

Only to land face-first into a pile of mud after taking three steps.

The cub desperately began to struggle through the thick and sticky pile of mud while Toothless simply stared at his now-conscious rider. The dragon had woken up instantly at the sound of the twig breaking and had jumped to his feet to combat any danger that presented itself. However, he hadn't been ready to react when he saw that his rider was the one who had caused the noise.

Toothless, seeing that Hiccup would take forever to get himself out of his 'muddy' situation, trotted over and lowered his head to the cub's body. He grabbed his rider by the scruff of his neck, making Hiccup jump from the unexpected contact.

"Don't kill me..." Hiccup thought to himself as he struggled helplessly from the mouth of the giant cat. Gods, he hated being manhandled! Why was it so easy for people to do that even when he was human?

The black mammal plopped Hiccup back near the grassy area the Viking had woken up on. The cub got back up to run away again, but Toothless quickly brought his right paw down on the cub's stomach, making Hiccup yelp as his body was trapped by the dragon's superior strength. The panther watched as Hiccup struggled severely to get out from under his paw, but eventually, his rider went limp when he realized how futile it was.

A small whimper escaped the cub, his left eye gazing up at the black feline with a scared, pitiful expression. The position the two were in reminded Toothless of when Hiccup was trapped beneath his sharp claws and the rock after he was freed from the ropes of the bolas.

The dragon's eyes widened with inspiration. That was it! Looking down at the now silently crying lion, he opened his mouth, exposing fangs that could easily rip meat away from bones and making the lion cub shiver and whine with fear.

"I'm coming for you Toothless." Hiccup thought sadly, resigned to his supposed fate of being eaten by the feline. He had hoped to at least last a few more minutes before being caught, but his klutziness and unfamiliarity with this body had foiled him again.

With a last, high-pitched whine, the Viking clenched his eyes shut as the black, green-eyed mammal brought its jaws down in his neck.


	21. Chapter 21

Chapter 21: Reprisal of Trust

Hiccup's heart beat rapidly, his tail shaking in fear and his ears lowering themselves so that he didn't have to hear whatever horrible sounds he expected to occur. He felt pressure on his neck and yelped when the panther closed it's jaws on it. It was slightly uncomfortable and made it a little hard to breath...

But that was it.

Hiccup creased his brow together. Why was it taking so long for the pain to kick in? He could feel the fangs grazing his skin, but the animal did nothing but bite him softly. Was it having trouble?

"Come on! Get it over with!" Hiccup thought to himself. "Why do you have to drag this out when you could just tear out my throat and be done with it?"

Then, to Hiccup's astonishment, the pressure on his neck vanished along with the paw that was holding him down. The cub slowly opened his eyes, confused but cautiously wary of what was happening.

The lion lifted his head to stare and feel at his body. There were no signs of injury on his neck as far as he could tell. No blood, despite the fact that the panther had clearly laid it's fangs on him. He could still feel the indentations on his neck where the jaws had been.

A low huff from the panther shook Hiccup from his thoughts, making the boy look up from his body and into the eyes of the panther, who was sitting calmly as it regarded the cub.

Neither lion nor panther knew what to do now. The cub was really confused from the panther's choice of letting him live, while the black feline's hopes of having his rider make the connection of what just happened began to diminish.

The cub then stared at himself, then toward the panther, back to himself, back to the panther...

The lion's expression suddenly became wide-eyed and shocked, as if something huge just dawned on him. Maintaining this look, the cub locked eyes with the panther and took one step forward. Toothless remained still, not wanting to scare his rider with any sudden movements.

Hiccup attempted to speak, but only managed to make a growling squeal from his mouth, which made him stamp his right foreleg in frustration. He thought about what he could do as talking was useless... until he looked down at his foreleg again. Shaking slightly in fear, the cub extended his paw out towards the panther with a nervous, yet suspicious feeling around him.

It was exactly what Toothless had been waiting for.

The panther slowly raised his own paw, extended it out towards the cub's, who remained still. Both the lion's and panther's paw met, showing the difference in size between the two and making Hiccup shiver slightly from the intimidation he felt. However, the boy quickly shook off his fear and maintained his position, eyes wide and mouth gaping when he saw the action the panther had taken.

Toothless pulled his paw back and quickly thrust his snout into the lion cub's paw, purring softly as his light-green eyes rounded in a friendly manner. The cub was startled by the sudden change, but was instantly calmed when he saw the familiar eyes that looked as if they belonged to... to...

Hiccup's eyes shimmered as they glazed with tears. Toothless, noticing this, pulled away and stared at his rider in concern, worried that he had hurt or scared the cub in some way.

Instead, the cub let out a little squeal before running into Toothless's chest, nuzzling and attempting to hug the dragon despite the awkward body he was in. Toothless hitched a breath from the unexpected action, but relaxed when he heard the purrs of excitement and contentment coming from his rider. The panther wrapped his paw around the cub and brought him close, purring slightly as the cub tickled his stomach with that nose of his.

For the moment, nothing else mattered to the two. The curse they were under, the crazy witch, and their complete imprisonment on this island was devoid of their attention. Right now, all that mattered was that they were together again.

Hiccup whimpered from the memory of seeing Toothless's seemingly dead body on the floor last night. Toothless, hearing this, brought his head down and slowly licked the lion's forehead, making Hiccup giggle. The dragon smiled, happy that his rider was no longer scared of him and knew who he was finally. Nothing could spoil this-

*SNAP!"

Both felines froze, turning their heads in the direction the noise had come from. The trees moved slightly from where heard it, obvious evidence that someone (or something) had been watching them.

Hiccup squealed and instinctively huddled closer to his friend while Toothless snarled dangerously and lifted himself to all fours. He motioned for the cub to get behind him, determined not to let his rider get in the way of danger again. The cub complied, edging himself over to the panther's right hind leg.

Toothless let out a snarl, lowering himself down to the ground and preparing to pounce at whoever had been watching them.

He needn't have bothered, for the one that was making so much noise came out. Both Hiccup and Toothless tensed up when they saw who it was.

It was the female wolf from the beach.


	22. Chapter 22

Chapter 22: The Cure

Lion and panther stared at the wolf for the longest time, shock plastered on their faces. The wolf in the meantime, sat on her haunches and simply looked at them with half-lidded eyes. Her body language betrayed a feeling of superiority toward the two, one that both dragon and human found confusing and rude.

The wolf stood there for a minute before abruptly turning tail and walking the other direction. She took a few steps before suddenly stopping and turning, motioning with her head for the two to follow her. She then continued walking and disappeared through the bush.

Both lion and panther stared at the area where the wolf had appeared and vanished for a minute, then looked at each other. Toothless shook his head at Hiccup, indicating that he did NOT want to follow that wolf. The lion cub however, nodded firmly in response, as if stating that they SHOULD follow.

Both continued their silent argument for a minute before the lion cub stamped his paw to the ground. His determined expression clearly showed that panther that his rider was not going to be changing his decision. Rolling his eyes, the black feline nodded, but then grinned, which was strange when looking at it on a feline face.

Before Hiccup could even tilt his in confusion at the act, the panther bent down and grabbed the lion cub by the scruff of his neck. Of course, the degrading action immediately sent the brown lion into a furious tirade of flailing and yowling. Carefully avoiding his rider's paws, the panther grumbled in amusement and began walking in the direction of where the wolf had disappeared.

The panther gave a little sniff every once in a while to keep track of the wolf's scent. His rider on the other hand, simply hung in place, his forelegs crossed between each other. He was pissed at his dragon for carrying him like a child. For Thor's sake, he was seventeen! Only baby animals were carried this way.

Then again, from his size, he was technically only a child in animal years. But even then, his mind was thankfully still that of a teen. His biggest fear was that he would have lost himself to the animal he had become. But aside from a few instinctual problems, such as peeing on Circe while being threatened (which made him chuckle a little, coming off as little growls) he seemed completely fine mentally.

His thoughts were interrupted when his friend came to a sudden stop. The panther dropped him to the ground, ignoring the yelp of surprise from his rider. Hiccup gave a little glare at his dragon, then creased his eyes when the panther didn't even look at him, too entranced by whatever he was seeing. Hiccup looked to where Toothless was staring, then abruptly let his jaw drop open.

In front of him stood the wolf, who had her back turned to him. She was sitting on her haunches, staring up at the life-sized model of a man. The structure was 8 feet tall, made of marble, and Hiccup honestly could have been mistaken it for the real thing if not for a second look. Underneath the statue sat a little stone block with a bit of writing. But it was hard to see at the distance they were at.

Him and Toothless walked forward, then realized that the entire statue was surrounded by bright white plants. They looked a little like a cross between a weed and a common flower with a bulb in the middle. The plants were spread around, but became closer together the nearer they were to the statue.

Hiccup stepped through the flowers, then gave a questioning growl to the wolf. The canine did not respond for a minute, but then she raised a paw at the stone block in front of the statue. The lion stepped closer and realized that a few words had been carved on the surface of the stone. Toothless looked on, perplexed that his rider was interested in a bunch of scratch marks. Humans, and his rider in particular, always seemed so fascinated with them. But who was he to question human behavior?

Hiccup meanwhile, read the inscription on the stone.

_"Odysseus. The first worthy man of both human body and heart."_

Odysseus? Was that what this statue was? A tribute to some guy ? But Circe obviously hated men. So what made this man so special that he would gain his own statue and, if this was made by Circe, 'worthy' of being human? It just didn't make any sense...

Hiccup sat back on his haunches, tail swishing while he examined the statue. Why had the wolf brought them here? Sure, finding out that there was actually one guy that Circe seemed to respect was kind of cool, but how did that help them? He was still stuck in this body, and he had no current way of changing back or getting off this damn island!

A low rumble behind him caught his attention. He turned his head, seeing that his transformed friend was now looking at him in concern. Following the panther's gaze, Hiccup saw that his paws now had extended, sharp claws. They dug into the ground, covering his paws in dirt. Realizing that he had taken them out in some sort of instinct, the boy relaxed himself, loosening the tension inside his body. It did the trick, the claws retracting into his stubby paws.

Hiccup sighed, looking back up at his friend in sadness. The panther met his gaze and let out a small rumble of concern. The black feline gave a soft lick to Hiccup's forehead, sticking the hair on it straight up. The cub frowned, then brought his paw up to straighten it out.

A loud bark startled them both. Turning their heads to the wolf, the panther and lion were perplexed when they saw the wolf biting into one of the white plants near the statue. The wolf pulled hard, and the whole thing came out, root and all.

To the duo's surprise, the canine then threw its head back and began gobbling the plant down. It munched up the plant with difficulty, then swallowed with an audible gulp. It shuddered a bit, clearly not enjoying the taste at all. It then sat down and closed its eyes, looking as though it were meditating.

Hiccup and Toothless stared. Why the wolf ate the plant was beyond them. In fact, this wolf had been acting completely random since day one. Toothless himself had half a mind to just grab his cub and walk away.

His rider. He meant grab his rider.

All of a sudden, the wolf lurched. Her hazel eyes shot open and a loud whimper of pain escaped her. The two felines backed away a couple feet, feeling uncomfortable and somewhat concerned for the wolf. Hiccup's concern rose even more when the wolf threw herself onto her back and thrashed about. Loud whimpers of pain continued to escape from her muzzle. Then taking a deep breath, the wolf let off a howl of what sounded like agony.

Hiccup's concern for the wolf overwhelmed him. He took a few steps forward, ignoring the growls of protest the panther was giving him. Toothless needn't have bothered, since Hiccup stopped once his eyes actually got a good look at the wolf's body. And what he saw was enough to surprise even Toothless.

The wolf's tail was a lot shorter than before, and getting visibly shorter by the second. Her coat of fur now had a bunch of pink bald spots. Her snout looked shorter than before, even as the cringing sounds of bone cracking and rearranging took place. The wolf's howl eventually devolved to very human-like gasps.

Hiccup stared at the spot where the wolf had changed. Instead of a wolf, there lay a naked human girl. He turned his eyes away, face heating up, but his curiosity got the best of him and refused to let him turn away completely. For some reason though, her being naked didn't seem to bother him as much than his encounter with Circe.

The girl meanwhile, steadily got to her feet. Hiccup focused his gaze just on the girl's face. She had grey hairstyle, almost matching the wolf's silver-colored fur. From her height and body build, she seemed to be in her late-teens. Her arms covered her body, but she did so in a very immodest way, like she was unconcerned about whether her body was exposed.

Toothless however, had his jaw wide open. While he had been surprised to see his rider as a lion, he had managed to accept it. It's been easier to just see it as "Was human, now lion." Heck, he wasn't even awake to see his own transformation. But now, having actually seen the process of something changing from one species to another, it freaked him out.

The girl herself looked at the lion and panther briefly before turning towards the statue. She bent down to the base of the statue, feeling around the edges before grasping the loose cracks within the marble. Grunting with effort, the girl slowly opened a secret compartment within the base. She reached in and pulled out a small white blanket. She smiled, closed the door, then proceeded to wrap the blanket around her shoulders.

She girl turned a little, checking to make sure it was secure on her body before dusting it down. Content with the makeshift robe, the girl finally turned her attention to the confused cub and the shocked panther.

"Hello Hiccup." She greeted with a smile, doing a small curtsy. "My name is Sarah."


	23. Chapter 23

Chapter 23: Human Again!

**Author's Note: Longest chapter by far this time! For those wondering about the which version of Circe I'm using for this story, I would suggest taking a look at the 1997 TV miniseries. That is my favorite version of the Oddysey and I love how the titular character is portrayed in that film. I also thought that Bernadette Peters made an excellent Circe. I've based my version mostly off of hers, but I decided to make her hair a straight black rather than the golden curly as it was in the film.  
**

**If anyone is interested, I highly recommend watching the miniseries. I think it is an accurate portrayal of the book despite some of the changes. You can find it on You Tube if you want to watch it.**

**Now on with the story!**

* * *

Hiccup could only stare at the human girl. His mind was a whirlwind of emotions. But the most dominant one was that of confusion. The wolf had been human all along? His thoughts went backward to all of his encounters with the wolf. Now that he thought about it, other than when the wolf's eye being blue, she had been very friendly and docile.

He let a small smile grace his features. It made sense that she was a human the whole time. The wolf had understood him the same way Toothless had, yet her strange behavior yesterday could also be attributed to human behavior. While Hiccup could usually tell what dragons and most animals thought and what their actions would be, a person's behavior was very hard to understand unless you knew them very well. And Hiccup himself barely understood his own father despite living with him all his life.

Then again, he probably wouldn't have guessed it by himself since the wolf had also been doing a lot of typical canine behavior. Carrying him like a cub, growling when angry, letting him pet the soft fur on its chest at the beach-

Hiccup froze, then blushed immensely as a thought suddenly occurred to him. If she'd been a human all along, then that meant that the chest he'd been petting yesterday was the same place where her... prominent female area was. The lion cub brought his paw up to the side of his face, his head feeling a warm rush of blood as his embarrassment increased. He wished he could apologize, but his voice box was currently ineffective for nothing else than animal sounds.

"Is something the matter, Hiccup?" Sarah asked, tilting her head in concern. The cub looked very distressed at the moment, letting off small muffled growls while pawing his cheek. Toothless, whose shock had lessened to an extent, saw his rider's obvious uncomfortableness and assumed that his rider was scared or nervous by the human girl. Closing his mouth, the panther walked over to his rider's side and placed his forelegs on either side of the lion's body.

The transformed human looked up at his friend, embarrassment passing and instead, a look of surprise and content went across his face. Without thinking, the cub leaned his forehead against the panther's foreleg and rubbed it against the black fur, purring lowly.

Sarah frowned. Both her and Toothless looked down at the oblivious Hiccup, whose eyes were fluttering almost sleepily while rubbing his head on the larger feline's arm. She scoffed angrily to herself, then bent down to grab a couple of the flowers in her hand. Pulling them up by the root, the girl began walking carefully over to the two, the panther watching her warily while Hiccup was too content with what he was doing to notice.

"Hiccup." she said sternly. Her voice seemed to snap him out of the reverie of bliss he was in, and turned his eyes toward her. She barely noticed how his eyes turned from bright cat-like slits into more duller and rounded human eyes.

"Here." she said, extending her hand out with the plants in them. "Eat these. These will turn you back to normal for a little while. It will be painful, but at least you'll be back to human and dragon.

Both panther and lion looked from her face down toward the plants. Turn them back? The whole thing made absolutely no sense, but considering their situation at the moment, they were willing to believe anything. Hiccup walked forward, carefully opening his jaws and clamping down in the bud of the flower. Toothless did likewise, grabbing his much faster and causing the girl to instinctively flinch her hand back from the jaws that scraped against her fingers.

Sounds of chewing followed soon after, the panther glowering distrustfully at the girl while Hiccup was too busy trying to keep the bits of flower in his elongated mouth. It proved frustrating for him, but his attempts were worthwhile. The flower itself had a weird flavor, sweet and giving a pleasant aftertaste of freshness on his tongue. The root was mostly dirt, making him cringe from the sandy crunches in his mouth, but it carried a few drips of water within it, making it slightly easier to choke it down.

Then he gulped, Toothless swallowing his own a few seconds later than Hiccup.

For a minute, nothing happened. Both felines stared down at their bodies, looking for any signs of change. When there was none, they turned their questioning gazes to the girl.

Seeing the expectancy directed towards her, Sarah explained. "It should kick in just about..." She paused for a second, "Now."

Hiccup's body flushed with a sudden surge of heat. At first, it was only slightly irritating, but the lion began to yowl when another wave of heat passed through, this time as hot as fire. Toothless mumbled in concern, but then lurched when his own body began to heat up to unbearable degrees.

Both fell on their sides, yowling with pain. The panther let off a heart-clenching roar, thrashing wildly while the cub did the same, yowling with an ear-piercing screech. The girl actually had to cover her ears to prevent them from bleeding from the noise. She watched at Hiccup's tail retracted within his body, the hair on the tip fading into the now pink and fur-less skin. She turned away, then began walking to the base of the statue.

Meanwhile, Hiccup's eyes were blurred by tears of pain. His body was uncomfortably hot, and his limbs ached as they stretched and his joints popped in the opposite direction from before. His stubby paws slowly stretched out, his claws moving from the tips of his fingers to the top. An extra finger and toe grew out for both hands and feet.

Hiccup's yowls became deeper and more nasally. His ears rounded, moving to the sides of his head while his mouth shortened with several cringe-inducing cracks. The lion body gained mass, chest widening and head expanding, causing massive headaches to erupt within. Hiccup let off one last pained gasp before finally opening his eyes, breathing hard and leaning on his hands and knees.

The now human Hiccup stared blankly at the grass in front of him, feeling each blade rubbed across his palm. Lifting one shaking hand, he gazed at his hand, panting heavily while his sweat-covered body cooled down from the fresh breeze in the air. He was completely naked, but none of that seemed to matter to the boy, who continued watching his trembling hand in shock.

Then slowly, a grin made its way across his face. Another gasp escaped him, only this time it wasn't one of exhaustion, but one of relief. He lifted his upper body off the ground, giggling in delight as he moved his now-human hands across his face. He felt all around his body, checking to make sure that everything on his body was okay.

Hesitantly, Hiccup moved his arms behind him and placed them on the top of his behind. A smile broke across his face when he realized that he no longer had a tail.

"I'm human again!" He laughed, throwing his body backwards on the soft patch of flowers. He continued laughing for a minute before a screech caught his attention. The Viking boy brought himself up on his arms only to be knocked down again with a yelp.

"Toothless?" Hiccup managed to say before the dragon began slobbering over his face in joy. The Night Fury was now an real dragon again, and after noticing it, he proceeded to lick his rider's face. The boy let out a few grumbles of annoyance, but the dragon's happiness was infectious, and soon, even he wrapped his arms around the dragon's head and laughed.

"Oh Toothless! We're back to normal!" He exclaimed proudly while the Fury grinned.

"I know I might be interrupting this little moment of yours, but may I suggest that you put this on?"

Human and dragon turned with wide eyes towards the girl, who was staring at them with a look of amusement. She held out an extra set of white blankets in front of her, face red from blushing.

Hiccup looked at the blankets, then down at the rest of his body. He stood there blankly for a moment before his face heated up in embarrassment. He'd been so excited about being human again that he had completely forgotten about his clothe-less situation. Toothless back away, amusement making its way across the dragon's face as Hiccup quickly got up, grabbed the sheets out of the girl's hands and hurriedly put it on. He found it funny that humans were self-conscious about their bodies, so much that they would rather wear dead animal skins and fur.

Wrapping the sheet around his body like a robe and tying a knot around his neck, the Viking sighed in relief before finally turning to the girl.

"Thank you for changing us back." Hiccup said gratefully, walking over to her and smiling. "I don't know what we would have done without your help."

"Don't thank me yet." The girl replied, suddenly solemn, her eyes gazing down at the ground. Hiccup frowned at her unenthusiastic response. "You're human now, but since Circe already gave you her poison, the plant's effects will wear off soon."

Hiccup's eyes widened, as did Toothless's. The duo looked at one another and grimaced, clearly agreeing that they did not want to be felines again.

"I can't believe my mother is still doing this, even after she herself had me with my father. You'd think that she'd find some other uses for men other than turning them into dumb beasts for her island." The girl said to herself bitterly out loud, staring up at the statue once again with a look of irritation.

It took a few seconds for the implications of that statement to reach Hiccup's head. The Night Fury though did not hear the girl, instead walking over to his rider and staying by his side.

Hiccup finally made out what the girl had just said. "Wait, time out! You mean to tell me that your mother is that witch?!" He exclaimed with a hint of anger in his voice that was not directed at her. The girl's back was facing him, but by the way her shoulders slumped, it was obvious that what he had just said depressed her.

"Yes. I'm the daughter she never wanted from the first man she ever made love to." she said in an almost monotonous, yet still miserable tone. It was like she had said this a million times, yet still had a tough time accepting it. Hiccup looked at her in pity, then his face darkened as the thought of Circe came to mind. Then his expression brightened as an idea came to mind.

"Hey wait! We're humans now! Let's go get her while we still can! Maybe we can get her to remove that potion from our body with an antidote or something." he said with rising joy in his voice. His dragon leapt to his paws and began wagging his tail enthusiastically, while also grinning evilly at the thought of what he would do to that 'Circe' human once he got his claws on her.

To Hiccup's confusion, the girl turned away from the statue and faced them, shaking her head sadly with a forlorn expression.

"I'm afraid that you can't. You're not the first human that I've given this plant to, and all of them have either tried to escape this island or face my mother. It's almost always the latter." Sarah said, her eyes betraying annoyance as she said this. "When they attempt to escape this island, they turn back into animals and don't survive long. I suggest you refrain from trying to fly off, unless you want your dragon here to turn back into a panther while in the air.

Hiccup paled at the thought, while Toothless stopped his enthusiastic hops and drooped his ears. Then a thought occurred to the Viking.

"But wait. What happens when they try to go to Circe?" he asked in confusion. Sarah grimaced.

"Since her potion is already inside them, my mother can still control their bodies to do whatever she wishes. And what she does with them depends on her mood."

Hiccup frowned, feeling that talking about this was making the girl uncomfortable, so he decided to change the subject.

"So how long have you been here?" He asked. Sarah looked bewildered at the sudden change of subject, but smiled when she realized he was only trying to be nice. She grabbed a hold of her hair and began running her hands through the sandy locks.

"I've been here for over 67 years now, and I-"

"Wait, WHAT?!" Hiccup shouted at her in shock. The girl jumped in surprise at the interruption, then sighed in irritation. Hiccup didn't notice this, too surprised by what she had said. Toothless was as surprised, his eyes wide as he looked the girl over.

"How can you be THAT old?! You look just about the same as my friend Astrid, and she-" Hiccup paused, eyes widening in realization. "ASTRID! Come on bud, we have to get back to Berk!"

Toothless nodded and bent down on his side, allowing a path up his wing. The boy ran forward, smirking at how the witch had given them back his leg and Toothless's fin. He was about to hop onto the dragon's back, but barely managed to make it five steps before his body was painfully tackled by the girl.

"Ow! What are you doing?" Hiccup said, trying to break out of the nameless girl's grip. She shook her head, glaring down at Hiccup with her hazel eyes. Toothless roared with anger at the sight of his downed rider, but a quick shake of Hiccup's head told him not to interfere. So he simply sat back on his haunches and gave his own slitted glare at the female.

"Don't you remember what I told you?" She hissed at Hiccup, who looked back at her with a confused and uncomfortable expression. "The plant I gave you is only temporary. You might turn back into animals while in the air, leaving you both flightless."

Hiccup's face paled in horror at the reminder.

"Or even if you managed to make it home and explain everything, you would be helpless once the plant wore off. You'd be a helpless lion cub with no voice to speak of." she continued.

"Well, what do you expect me to do then?" Hiccup asked, annoyed that she was holding him down so easily. "I can't just stay here and mope around all day. I can bring my tribe and they can-"

"Do what exactly?" Sarah interrupted, her face now showing anger. Toothless growled at her, but another shake of the head from Hiccup made him hold his ground. "You'd be leading your tribe into a trap! My mother would send all her pets to defend her island, not to mention the sea creatures she has under her control. She'd sink your boats before they could make it."

"But we have dragons! We could fly in and take her island before she has a chance to prepare!" Hiccup shouted, desperate to make the girl see his end of the argument. His hopeful expression deteriorated into a confused one when the girl's face became horrified.

"You don't understand! These animals are people! She'd be willing to kill all of them without hesitation before your tribe could get to her!" She yelled, her hair hanging down messily and making her look quite deranged. Her appearance reminded Hiccup of the mangy wolf she had been earlier. The boy sighed loudly, turning his head to the side and thinking it over. He turned back to the girl, who softened her grip on his arms when she saw him wince.

"Then why did you turn us back?" Hiccup asked, confused. "If we can't go for help or get to Circe, then why bring us here in the first place and give us this plant?"

At this, the girl sighed heavily, letting go off Hiccup's arms and climbing to her feet. She adjusted the robe, which had loosened slightly, but had not fallen off thankfully. Rubbing her hands through her hair, she looked back up at the statue of Odysseus, which stood out bright against the afternoon sun.

"Because giving you some time to be normal again is the best I can offer you and your dragon." she said simply, her tone low with disappointment. She turned away from Hiccup, walking towards the base of the statue and ignoring the shocked looks both dragon and rider were giving her.

"This place is the only part of the island where the flower will grow, and I thought that I could make the rest of your life here a little more bearable for both of you. You can come here and be yourselves for a little while each day until it wears off or until my mother summons you." Her voice lowered almost inaudibly at the end, as if she was regretting having to say this.

Hiccup stared at her back, mouth opening and closing, but with no words coming out. Then he sighed irritably, rising to his feet. He stood there for a minute, just staring at the girl's back, then turned his head towards Toothless. Both pairs of eyes settled in on each other, then they nodded simultaneously as they reached a silent decision. Toothless bent down on his side again while Hiccup stalked quietly as to not attract Sarah's attention.

"What are you doing?" She asked,, head perking up at the sound of grass crunching beneath Hiccup's feet. Turning around, her eyes widened when she saw the Viking on the Night Fury's back.

"Maybe you've given up," Hiccup said sadly, "but Toothless and I are going to at least try." With that, the teen wrapped his arms around his dragon's neck as Toothless sprang into the air, ignoring the yells of protest coming from the nameless girl.

"NO! Don't do it! She'll do worst than what she's already done!"

But it was too late. All Circe's daughter could do was watch as the two jumped off the ground flew away towards Circe's home. And throughout all of this, none of the three noticed the black raven watching them with eyes that swirled with black smoke.


	24. Chapter 24

Chapter 24: Attempt at Confrontation

Hiccup squinted as he and Toothless flew through the air and back towards Circe's home. Both the dragon and him kept a close distance towards the ground, staying just above the trees. The reason for this was because neither of them knew how long they would stay in their regular bodies. Based on what Sarah had told them, it wouldn't be for very long.

Despite this, the two eventually made it back to the entrance of the marble structure, landing softly as to not make noise and attract attention. To their surprise, the area which had been completed deserted last night was now inhabited by various animals, all of which had settled their uncomfortably human-like gazes upon the duo with expressions of surprise, suspicion, and depression. They did nothing however, as if anything the two were doing didn't matter to them.

The entire place felt like a zoo to Hiccup. There were the typical animals he'd seen before, such as sheep, horses, and dogs, but then there were some animals that were completely unrecognizable to him. One was a huge, gray animal that had legs like tree stumps and a long nose swinging between its tusks. Another was a tall, bird-like animal that had a stumpy body covered in black and white feathers. And even one animal that looked like a cross between a beaver and a duck. Then there were others, like lions, gorillas, birds and many more.

Hiccup continued to stare at the animals in awe until he felt a nudge on his back from Toothless. Turning around, the Viking saw the dragon giving him an impatient look. The other animals meanwhile went back to simply laying and moping about, as they were unable to do anything other than simply existing for the mistress.

"Right." Hiccup said, more to himself than to Toothless. Tugging his white makeshift robe on his shoulders, the Viking drew his attention to the entrance of Circe's home, which was now closed off with thick marble doors. Hiccup walked up to them, passing by various animals who all watched as he went up, knocked on the doors several times, then placed his ear on them. Hiccup thought to himself for several moments, before sighing and clearing his throat.

"To all of you here," he said, making all the animals turn towards him, ears perked up attentively, "you might want to stand back before my friend blows the door down."

The animals stared at him in confusion for a moment, then turned towards Toothless as the dragon began to release gas from his mouth with a loud hiss.

The area suddenly became filled with loud screeches, roars, hisses, neighs, trumpeting, and chirping as every single animal in front of the building sprang to their feet and ran off into the forest in fear. Some animals hitched rides on others, such as the lions and wolfs picking up the smaller ones and carrying them away. The elephant meanwhile, was used as a landing pad for various birds and monkeys. Within moments, the entire clearing was now just that: clear.

Hiccup himself covered his ears and ran down the steps, jumping down and running behind Toothless's wings. His eyes clenched shut and he pressed his body down, just as Toothless released his blue fireball.

The following explosion was REALLY loud, and the strong marble doors were blown inwards by the Night Fury's intense fire. Large chunks of rubble littered the long hallway that led into the building. Hiccup felt his dragon wrap him in his wings, protecting the Viking from the heat and shrapnel. The boy felt his ears ring from all the noise, but kept calm throughout the ordeal.

Once the explosion was done, both dragon and human stood up from their positions and looked at the damaged entrance. Their was a lot of smoke and soot from the fire, but overall, the Night Fury's blast had made a good-sized hole.

"Thanks Toothless." Hiccup said, reaching up and scratching the dragon behind the ears. The Night Fury purred in response, then turned to look at Hiccup with a gummy smile.

The dragon's happy expression fell almost immediately once he set his sights on his rider's face. A screech escaped him as he backed away a couple of feet, staring at his rider with a look of horror and leaving Hiccup perplexed at his dragon's strange behavior.

"Toothless, what's wrong?" he asked, reaching up scratch the side of his head as he walked towards the dragon. The Viking paused however when he realized that the area where his ear usually was now completely devoid of the appendage. His face instantly went from confused to terrified. Hands trembling, the boy raised them up and kept going until he felt something in his hair. His breathing became erratic once he felt two rounded, fuzz-covered ears above each side of his temples.

"Oh no... no no no no NO NO NO!" Hiccup shouted as he gripped the lion ears tightly and yelped when he found that they were indeed real. The Night Fury meanwhile was staring at Hiccup with wide eyes, as if he couldn't believe what he was seeing. "The plant! It's wearing off! We have to hurry!" Hiccup said frantically.

Toothless suddenly felt an itch on the tip of his nose. He brought a paw up to scratch it away, but then noticed two long gray hairs on each side of his snout. At the same time, he saw that scales on his paw were fusing together into a softer skin. Hiccup, seeing the change occurring on his friend, screamed in horror. It was soon drowned out by the Night Fury's own screech, which slowly became deeper as his throat shifted.

"Enough!" Hiccup yelled, making Toothless stop in his now growl-sounding screeches. "Panicking isn't gonna do anything! We have to find CiiiirrrooOOOOOOWWWWLLLL!"

Hiccup covered his mouth in shock, surprised that the animal-like sound had come from him. It surprised him even more when he felt long whiskers on his nose, which itself was now longer than usual. He felt something furry brush in between his feet. Lifting his robes above the knee, the Viking let out a shocked yelp when a brown, tufted tail came into view.

Toothless, seeing his rider's fear, narrowed his eyes. His human was scared and he felt that he had to help. Pushing his own fear to the back of his mind, the dragon leapt forward toward his rider, grabbed Hiccup by the collar of his robe, threw him onto his back where the dragon's wings were now shrinking into his body, then sprang forward into the building.

Hiccup hung on as best he could as Toothless ran down the hall, making random lefts and right everything now and then through the massive interior on Circe's home. The place seemed much bigger on the inside than on the outside for some reason, which confused the Viking immensely. His lion tail waved wildly in the air as Toothless ran as fast as he could without throwing off his rider. This was made even more difficult from the fact that Hiccup's hands were becoming less human by the second, with brown fur slowly growing on his arms while his pinkie fingers fused with his other fingers, leaving him only four.

Toothless's forelegs and hindlegs were becoming less scaly as well, while his dragon claws retracted into the undersides of his paws. Both human and dragon grew pads underneath their feet and arms, and Toothless's tail fins melted together into a simple stubby tail.

"WheeeeRrrrrrrrrre c-cooouuulllwwdd sheeeer beeeeewwwwlll?!" Hiccup exclaimed, voice almost gone as his vocal cords rearranged into something more suited for animals. His face had distended outwards into a snout more suited for cats. His human teeth shrank into his gums, staying in for few seconds before coming back out sharper than usual. Feeling them with his tongue, the Viking realized that they were the type of teeth that could bite his lip and draw blood.

His question of where Circe could be did manage to make it to Toothless, who skidded to a stop once he came to a three-way corridor. There was a left path, a right path, and a front path, but neither knew which way to go. Toothless sniffed each one, ignoring the black, whiskered nose and the fact that his legs, tail, and face were now more panther than dragon. The same went for Hiccup, whose face had now become completely lionized along with a tail and legs to go with it.

The Night Fury paused, sniffing the right corridor a few more times before growling. Hiccup sniffed a few times himself, smelling an odd combination of sweet flowers mixed in with a hint of spice. He had barely any time to think about this before Toothless reared up and roared out in anger. The roar this time was a lot more guttural, but no less intimidating. Hiccup instinctively flattened his ears and clung onto his dragon's back firmly, ignoring the robe that was now loose on his shoulders.

The dragon turned and began sprinting as fast as he could, eyes completely slitted in rage for what this human woman had done to him and his rider. He noticed that the floor underneath his paws was closer than before, showing that his body was now shrinking to a smaller size suited for panthers. Hiccup wasn't that heavy, but he wasn't supposed to be this light either, revealing to the dragon that his rider was going through the same rate of transformation as he was.

A pair of red, gold-tasseled curtains sat at the end of the corridor. Toothless put each leg in front of the other, clenching his teeth and straining against his aching body. Just as he was about to go through the curtains, Hiccup's white robe, now too loose for the yowling lion cub on his back, chose the time to fall off the Viking and tangle itself beneath the panther's feet.

Toothless fumbled around with the sheet for a moment before his imbalanced run resulted in him and Hiccup tumbling down to the ground. They collapsed just as they passed the curtains, with the panther face-planting into the floor while the lion cub was sent flying into the air from the momentum of the sudden stop.

The brown lion flew through the air, arms flailing along with an extended yowl escaping him as his body flew and headed towards the ground.

Or rather, towards the giant bathtub at the end of the room where Circe was relaxing in. The witch was laying down with a pair of cucumber slices over her eyes and enjoying the feeling of the hot, steamy water while covered in bubbles. Her face was lathered in white cream, to help her face retain its beauty. These baths were always the most tranquil part of the day for her...

...and it would have remained that way if the flying feline heading towards her tub was able to change direction in mid-air.

Unfortunately, that wasn't the case.

*SPLASH!*

Circe's enraged and surprised scream could be heard all throughout the island.


End file.
